What will I learn? • I am learning to understand the

different ideologies on welfare provision.

Success Criteria • Outline the difference between

collectivism, individualism, the Third Way and Big Society.

The Collectivist View

• The state would fund the services needed. • Raise funds through NI contributions. • The treasury decides the level of pensions and

benefits and succeeding governments decide on the levels of investment.

• People on the right of the political spectrum believe that too much money is spent on the NHS and dislike high taxation. Prefer Individualist approach.

• People on the left believe that the NHS does not do enough to help vulnerable groups such as women and ethnic minorities.

Individual Personal Responsibility

• Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Governments represented the opposite approach to that of Beveridge: individual personal responsibility.

• The Thatcher years saw the ideals of Beveridge challenged and the welfare state cut back in size and scope.

• The Conservatives believed the welfare state had created a “dependency culture”, where people became lazy and relied on the “nanny state” to look after them.

• Instead of collective solutions, the Conservatives offered individual solutions

The Individualist view

• The individualist philosophy is not new.

It is, in principle, no different from the “laissez faire” approach of the 19th century.

• Individualists believe that government should have as little to do with the workings of society.

• It should tax as little as possible and leave individuals to be responsible for their own wealth and health.

• The individualists rose to prominence during the Thatcher years.

• Individualists are most common in the USA, which has a much less extensive welfare state than the UK

New Labour (1997)• New Labour attempted to blend individual

responsibility with collective support as part of a “third way” approach to welfare.

• Charles Murray, an American sociologist claims that welfare benefits for single-parents have encouraged the decline of the family.

• "A plague is spreading through our social fabric".• He sees a) high unemployment, and b) high single-

parenthood as the central causes.• This, for him, has encouraged a "counter-culture"

which devalues work, encourages criminality and a quote;dependency-culture" (i.e. on state hand-outs).

• He claims that Britain will see a “underclass” develop who will avoid "normal" work and live a life of crime, illegitimacy and government “dependency”.

The Third Way • New Labour, under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown

believed that their government was ‘modernising’ the welfare state while retaining its founding principles.

• Government benefits should be ‘hand up, not hand out’

• The Labour Party used phrases such as ‘welfare dependency’ and sought to bring in ‘welfare to work’ programmes.

• New Deals• Trimmed back Welfare benefits. • Means tested• (SEE REST OF HANDOUT- CHALLENGES TO

THE WELFARE STATE)

David Cameron’s Broken Society

• ‘Circumstances: where you’re born, your neighbourhood, your school and the choices your parents make have a huge impact. But

social problems are often the consequence of the choices that people make’

• Broken society refers to social evils such as long-term unemployment, crime and poverty.

• Heal broken society with greater individual responsibility yet offering state help to those

prepared to face up to their problems.

The Big Society • "It’s time for something

different, something bold – something that doesn’t just pour money down the throat of wasteful, top-down government schemes. The Big Society is that something different and bold. It’s about saying if we want real change for the long-term, we need people to come together and work together – because we’re all in this together.”

David Cameron, July 2010

Vanguard Communities

• Across the country "vanguard communities" have been set up.

• In these communities, individuals and voluntary groups are funded to take over duties previously provided by the state.

• These groups can run housing projects, schools, youth groups and cultural organisations.

• A "big society bank”, of some £400m taken from dormant bank and building society accounts, has been established to finance charities and voluntary groups.

Critics of the Big Society • The first criticism is that the Big Society is nothing new.

The UK has thousands of voluntary groups already and many individuals make their own personal contribution to community life.

A more serious criticism is that the Big Society is simply a smokescreen for big cuts in public services.

• These cuts may well have happened under any government elected in May 2010.

But, it is argued that, underneath the spin of the Big Society, this is just the same bad old Conservatives slashing the state on ideological grounds.

It is claimed that the Conservatives, by default, just do not like the welfare state.

The Big Society, therefore, is an attempt at American style social services, where volunteers and charities fund hospitals and schools, rather than the state.

This would mean the end of the Beveridge welfare state.

Instead of national, collective provision, the UK would become a patchwork quilt of different groups providing services of varying quality.

• If you want to know more about this section, go online and access the article on Collectivism and Individualism on Modernity Scotland.

• http://www.modernityscotland.co.uk/cfe-social-inequality/523-article-6-the-collectivist-view

• http://www.modernityscotland.co.uk/cfe-social-inequality/522-article-5-the-individualist-view

Want to know more?

I can…•Outline the meaning of collectivism and individualism.

•What was Labour’s Third Way?

•Explain the theory of ‘Big Society’

Health and welfare provision should be the responsibility of the government.

Discuss – 20 marks

QuestionsUse article 21st Century Challenges

to the Welfare State

1. Outline the challenges to the welfare state.

2. Outline the view of Charles Murray.

3. How did New Labour respond to the challenges of the Welfare state?

Use article New Labour and the Welfare State

1. In what way was the New Labour approach different from that of the Thatcher era?