Contesting the Welfare State in a Neo-Conservative Era

• DOI: 10.1300/j059v01n01_03
• Publication Date: 2005-12-14T19:45:18Z
• Authors: Peter Leonard
• Keywords: 05 social sciences; 1. No poverty; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; 10. No inequality

With the triumph of neo-conservatism, the Left has faced a number of dilemmas. The example of Britain is used to show that while the Left has attempted to remain critical of the liberal welfare state without giving support to Right attacks, it has also learned to be more concerned with issues of individual choice and state control in social welfare than it has in the past. Analysis of the problems of the "old welfare state" and an understandmg of the roots of the ideological successes of the Right provides one basis for a new progressive politics of social welfare.