IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/scotjp/v49y2002i1p91-103.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making Welfare Work: The Politics of Reform

Author

Listed:
  • Frank Field

Abstract

Welfare reform, if it is to be successful in the longer–term, needs to be based on a carefully thought out political strategy. The new political arithmetic, where the poor are an electoral minority, and many working class voters have rising aspirations, requires welfare reform to appeal to the interests of the majority. While welfare reform similarly must work with rather than against the grain of human nature, self–interest has to be harnessed in a way which builds an inclusive programme. The Government’s drive towards ever greater means–tested provision looks good in year one. The penalties means–tests impose on working, saving and honesty become apparent only later with an ever–growing proportion of the population having to think about how best to work this system. Equally importantly, this drive to even greater means–tested dependency is set to blow apart some of the key characteristics which underpin a common citizenship.

Suggested Citation

  • Frank Field, 2002. "Making Welfare Work: The Politics of Reform," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 49(1), pages 91-103, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scotjp:v:49:y:2002:i:1:p:91-103
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-9485.00222
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9485.00222
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-9485.00222?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:scotjp:v:49:y:2002:i:1:p:91-103. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sesssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.