The fourth attempt to construct a politics of welfare obligations

Abstract

Since the 1980s there have been three main attempts to ground citizenship upon the principles of duty, obligation and responsibility: conservative, communitarian and Third Way. Each of these are reviewed below. The principal task of this article, though, is to examine the emergence of a fourth attempt which, by relating duty to equality through the principle of reciprocity, represents a synthesis of traditional social democracy with the new politics of obligation. Our focus will be upon The Civic Minimum by Stuart White since this is arguably the most cogent expression of duty-based egalitarianism to have emerged in recent years.

Lone Parents and Welfare‐to‐Work in England: A Spatial Analysis of Outcomes and Drivers

“…Some critics have focused on the partiality of the approach, with ‘contributions’ defined as paid employment, ‘benefits’ restricted to social assistance and ‘dependency’ to receipt of out‐of‐work benefits (Fitzpatrick ; Goodin ). Others have questioned the repeated claim within policy documents that work always ‘pays’, whether financially (Millar and Ridge ; Grover ) or in terms of broader issues around care (Duncan and Edwards,; Williams ; Barnes et al .…”

The ethics of welfare-to-work

“…First, however, I propose critically to examine notions of responsibility. Political discourse is replete with attempts to (re)construct a politics of welfare obligation (Fitzpatrick, 2005) and with competing notions of responsibility. The complexity of political discourse revolves principally around the reciprocal relationship that necessarily exists within any polity between the responsibilities of the citizen and the rights that may be guaranteed by the state.…”

Welfare Conditionality, Inequality and Unemployed People with Alternative Values

“…2An in-depth discussion of the debate between White and others on welfare citizenship is beyond the scope of this article (see instead Mead and Beem, eds., 2005), as is discussion of detailed critiques of White's work (for example, Fitzpatrick, 2005). …”

“…I am grateful to Alan Deacon, Simon Duncan and three anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. 2 An in-depth discussion of the debate between White and others on welfare citizenship is beyond the scope of this article (see instead Mead and Beem, eds., 2005), as is discussion of detailed critiques of White's work (for example, Fitzpatrick, 2005).…”