Description
Book SynopsisIn this book Lesley Jacobs challenges the view, now prevalent in North America and Western Europe, that the primary function of a nation''s social policy should be to provide support only for the poorest people instead of social services accessible to all its citizens.In an interesting and distinctive argument he develops and defends the idea that access to basic rights such as education, health care, adequate housing, and income support can provide a solid moral foundation for redistributive state welfare programmes, maintaining that any nation which purports to take rights to basic liberties seriously must also be fully committed to the principles of the welfare state. Dr Jacob''s thesis addresses a pressing political and philosophical problem at the heart of the policies and structure of the modern state.
Trade ReviewThis book ... has much to offer and is a welcome addition to ongoing debates not only on the justification of the welfare state and the problem of just redistribution, but also on personhood and the role of rights. * Political Studies *
Table of ContentsA person-affecting theory of human rights; the case against welfare rights; two conceptions of liberty rights - agency and integrity; distributional equality and rights; rights and deprivation - the enabling model; rights and deprivation - the development model; towards a just social policy.
