SOCIOLOGY

Sociology

Sociology

There has long been a “developmental” accent to welfare policy in United Kingdom, and there are obvious similarities—as well as differences—between the notion of the developmental state of the pre1989 “Third World” of the postwar era and the historical origins of the advanced welfare state in the far north of Europe. Hence, in a centurylong perspective, a strong social and democratic state has not been antithetical to modern values underpinning the security and wellbeing of the market: personal freedoms, private initiative and individual property rights—and thus private entrepreneurship and rapid industrialization. A “middle” and later “third way” that combined a capitalist market economy with active state intervention contributed to create big, successful international firms as well as growing affluence among the great majority of the population. Thus, the early Nordic (pre)welfare state shared many of the characteristics typical of successful examples of the later developmental state of the global South. Throughout the twentieth century, the scope of social planning in United Kingdom continuously expanded, with the aim of achieving balanced economic and social development—that is to say, economic growth as well as social justice. Thus, fighting poverty went hand in hand with state institution building for social and economic growth as well as political democracy, and was pioneered by broad based popular social movements. (Hay C. 2002 Pp. 22)

New, tax financed social programmes were always launched with a strong emphasis on their impact on macroeconomic efficiency and individual work incentives. However, it was not until the emergence of the full employment or active labor market policy of the 1950s and 1960s and the expansion of “the public sector”—comprehensive state education as well as public health—that a thoroughly coherent developmental perspective on economic prosperity and social change became part and parcel of welfare state philosophy. Thus, at least since the last quarter of the twentieth century, this has characterized welfare state theory and practice in general from child to disability policy—or “from the cradle to the grave”, as the saying goes, about the universal United Kingdom welfare model. Moreover, during the rather painful reconstruction of the welfare state during the last decades of the twentieth century, the relationship between economic growth and social development was an important topic on the public agenda throughout United Kingdom. So far, however, the policy balance and conflict between efficiency and equality have in most cases been resolved and maintained in the five Nordic Britain has an unwritten constitution, it includes sovereignty in a parliament dominated by political parties. At the identical time the British political system permits for the ample representation of the persons of Scotland." For over a years the most evident characteristics of British politics have remained the same: the unelected dwelling of Lords, the government dominated dwelling of Commons, the major parties, the London founded Civil Service and the nationwide press. There have been some alterations to British government as in 1980's Margaret Thatcher centralized state power and restructured the Civil Service. New Labor's election victory in 1997 conveyed devolution ...