State Responsibility

to Social Welfare
{ By Lecturer Tulasa Neupane
Introduction
 States have the legal obligation to protect and promote human
rights, including the right to social security, and ensure that
people can realize their rights without discrimination.
 The overall responsibility of the State includes ensuring the

due provision of benefits according to clear and transparent

eligibility criteria and entitlements, and the proper
administration of the institutions and services.
 Where benefits and services are not provided directly by

public institutions, the effective enforcement of the legislative

frameworks is particularly important for the provision of
benefits and services
Concept of welfare State
Asa Briggs
 “A welfare state is a state in which organized power is deliberately used

(through politics and administration) in an effort to modify the play of

the market forces in at least three directions
 first, by guaranteeing individuals and families a minimum income
irrespective of the market value of their work or their property;
 second, by narrowing the extent of insecurity by enabling individuals and
families to meet certain “social contingencies” (for example, sickness,
old age and unemployment) which lead otherwise to individual and
family crisis; and
 third, by ensuring that all citizens without distinction of status or class are
offered the best standards available in relation to a certain agreed range
of social services.”
Concept of welfare State
 The term 'welfare state' describes collectively a range of social policies that
aim to provide basic services such as health and education, according to the
need and normally, free of charge through state funding.
 The theory of welfare state is the basis of positive liberalism.
 It is a sort of state, which
 provides extensive social services to all the citizens,
 protects the weaker sections,
 provides economic and social security and tries to reduce the gap between the
rich and the poor.
 makes laws to control the economy,
 nationalizes industries,
 makes laws to protect the weaker sections, arranges the supply of essential
commodities,
Liberalism
 Liberalism is based on the moral argument that ensuring the right of an
individual person to life, liberty and property is the highest goal of
government.
 Consequently, liberals emphasis the wellbeing of the individual as the
fundamental building block of a just political system.
 A political system characterized by unchecked power, such as a monarchy
or a dictatorship, cannot protect the life and liberty of its citizens.
 Therefore, the main concern of liberalism is to construct institutions that
protect individual freedom by limiting and checking political power.
Liberalism
 Liberalism is based on the moral argument that ensuring the right of an
individual person to life, liberty and property is the highest goal of
government.
 Consequently, liberals emphasis the wellbeing of the individual as the
fundamental building block of a just political system.
 A political system characterized by unchecked power, such as a monarchy
or a dictatorship, cannot protect the life and liberty of its citizens.
 Therefore, the main concern of liberalism is to construct institutions that
protect individual freedom by limiting and checking political power.
Positive Liberalism
 By the close of 19th century, positive liberalism had flourished to the set
back to the classical notion. Unrestricted freedom to the capitalism widened
the gap between haves and haves-not.
 Classic Liberalism: laissez faire
 .I.S. Mill's ideas of liberalism depart from those of the classical model in
four ways
 He opined that the value of the personality of the individual can be realized in
the actual conditions of a free society.
 A good society is one which permits both freedom and opens up the
opportunity for a free and satisfying way of life.
 Liberty is not an individual good, but a social good.
 The function of a liberal state in a free society is not to leave the individual
alone, but also to act as a means of creating increasing and equalizing
opportunity
Liberal Democratic Welfare State
 Positive liberalism in the twentieth century came to be identified with the
democratic welfare state
 The object of the state is not only to maintain law, order and justice, but it is
also a part of the social process, its function in the society is to serve the
common interests and perform services for the welfare of all members of
the society.
 The main principles of the welfare state are:
 The recognition that every member of the community, solely because he is a
human being, is entitled to a minimum standard of living
 The welfare state is committed to a policy of economic stability and progress
 The welfare state is committed to full employment as one of the top priorities of
public
Welfare State
 Welfare State- Positive State
 Assumption: State a desirable institution capable of promoting positive good.
 Democratic state: an instrument that the people could and should use to further
their common interest
 Welfare State is Democratic
 welfare state is a democratic state, possessing a certain formal institutional
mechanism
 Welfare State- Mixed Economy
 Welfare State- Permanent Institution & Neutral Agency
 The welfare state, positive liberalism maintains, is an eternal and permanent
institution of society
 State is an arbiter seeking the good of any society impartially
Justification of Welfare State
 State and The Market: In the absence of any positive interference by the state
in the political economy, the exploitation of the working class by an
aristocracy of monopoly capitalism without caring for any social
responsibility, unemployment on a large scale, inhuman working conditions
in factories, competitive low wages, long working hours, poverty, illiteracy
and poor health are bound to result.
 Individualist: Welfare is not an act of morality but a compelling duty. This is
embedded in the autonomy of the individual
 Enhances Individual Liberty
 Equality
 Theory of Citizenship
 Theory of Justice
Forms of Welfare State
 According to the first model the state is primarily concerned with directing the
resources to “the people most in need”. This requires a tight bureaucratic control over
the people concerned, with a maximum of interference in their lives to establish who
are "in need" and minimize cheating. The unintended result is that there is a sharp
divide between the receivers and the producers of social welfare, between "us" and
"them", the producers tending to dismiss the whole idea of social welfare because they
will not receive anything of it. This model is dominant in the US.[4]
 According to the second model the state distributes welfare with as little bureaucratic
interference as possible, to all people who fulfill easily established criteria (e.g. having
children, receiving medical treatment, etc). This requires high taxing, of which almost
everything is channeled back to the taxpayers with minimum expenses for
bureaucratic personnel. The intended – and also largely achieved – result is that there
will be a broad support for the system since most people will receive at least
something. This model was constructed by the Scandinavian ministers Karl Kristian
Steincke and Gustav Möller in the 30s and is dominant in Scandinavia.
Welfare Regimes
Demographic challenges
 Social Change
 Increasing social inequality in health and longevity is another challenge
 increasing insider/outsider division on the labour market
 growth in “precarious” jobs and of working poor
 Insufficient child care.
 The traditional family structure has eroded everywhere
 Economic Challenges
 longevity has increased more than anybody could hope for- All countries face a
significant increase in old age dependency ratios
 Increase in fertility worldwide has alleviated the danger of overpopulation
 Challenges within Welfare System
 As welfare services were developed during the mass industrialisation era, they
display several characteristics typical of that era
 gap between how welfare services are typically delivered and the desires of those
New Challenges

 Climate change:
 it is likely to lead to calls for new welfare spending
 It may challenge economic growth and therefore welfare states’ past dependence
on this growth.
 Immigration
 indigenous respondents are less supportive of redistribution when there is a
higher share of immigrants in their region
 could reduce people’s willingness to see welfare services as universal
Globalization as an economic challenge
 The most cited theories from the 1970s and 1980s book about “small states in world
markets”
 The new consensus that emerged in the 1990s was different. Focus changed from
market failures that required political solutions, to state failures that required
market solutions.
 Previously, manufacturers could have a “home market” from which they might
eventually expand to the world market. Currently, there is not much of a home
market for products and services that can be traded.
 Globalization constitute a challenge to equality
 Globalization triggers a downward slope by which workers are becoming a commodity
and citizens receive less social security and the economy is driven by capital.
 Outsourcing
 globalisation entails a pressure against equality
 trade-off between equality and employment
 High minimum wages would make it impossible for employers to earn a profit. Hence,