Social Policy and Welfare: From Needs to Rights

Abstract

This chapter is a further consideration of the welfare state and an attempt to identify some of the reasons why it has failed disabled people among others. There is one further influence that is relevant to the discussions herein and that is my own commitment to collective welfare provision and my concern that within the political left, there has been a dearth in recent theorising about state welfare. As it is sometimes said in respect of religion that the devil has all the best tunes, in recent years it is the right that has had the best theories about welfare.