Welfare

Welfare is a modern idea which covers a range of social and economic phenomena, from personal notions of well-being and self-esteem to complex policy questions involving the relief of indigence and unemployment and the supply of such goods and services as housing, education, pensions and health care. In this book Norman Barry traces the origins of the concept of welfare from its beginnings in early utilitarian and individualistic social philosophy through to its full articulation in the theories of citizenship and community that emerged in criticism of 19th-century capitalism. He considers the meaning of welfare and its connection with other concepts, especially social justice, equality, freedom and rights. The work of social philosophers such as Bentham, J.S.Mill, L.T.Hobhouse and Richard Titmuss is reviewed alongside an historical and analytical account of the welfare state and there is also a discussion of the role of liberal political economy in the development of an individualistic and anti-statist theory of welfare.