Needs and Welfare

The idea of need is politically controversial. Debates on the subject intensified during the 1980s as some western governments reduced programmes which had enabled many of their citizens' needs to be met. This book is about the idea of need and how needs can be, and are, met in western societies. The idea of need and its relation to the provision of welfare are explored in the first part of the book. The major theoretical traditions are reviewed and the idea of need as absolute is contrasted with the idea that needs are relative. The provision of welfare by the state and the rights of citizens to welfare are the focus for the second section of the book. Different models of welfare provision are examined both in theoretical terms and through two case studies: of models of pension provision and of the connection between the satisfaction of needs and electoral success for governments. The final section looks at the other side of the mixed economy of welfare - the provision of welfare by private and voluntary organizations. Can the market provide when the state withdraws from welfare provision? What should be the role of the state in such a market-based model of welfare?