Social Citizenship Rights in the Welfare State

Abstract

The first eight chapters of this book have examined the content and influence of New Right political and economic theories. The book now looks beyond these arguments and Chapter 10 concentrates upon the likely role of markets in post-New Right public policy, specifically the formulation of labour market policy to combat unemployment and how this relates to expanding citizenship rights. This chapter examines the concept of citizenship rights and their incorporation in the institutions of the welfare state. While New Right arguments have affected civil and political citizenship rights, reducing the welfare state (and hence social rights) has been a central objective of those governments influenced by New Right ideas. It is this aspect of citizenship which is of primary concern here. This chapter further considers how welfare rights have been integrated into the British and American political systems. It is argued that the welfare state is now so central to Britain that a diminution of its scope (as sought by New Right advocates) is difficult to achieve; by contrast, the weaker American welfare state makes its retrenchment somewhat easier, though not unprob-lematical. While social citizenship rights do not face extinction, these two Governments have had harmful consequences for them in their respective countries.