The Work Connection: The Role of Social Security in British Economic Regulation

by J. Stewart, Chris Grover, Kenneth A. Loparo (Editor)

Overview

The authors use regulation to explain the antecedents to current welfare developments in Britain. From discussion of the 'Speenhamland System', the struggle for Family Allowance and a National Minimum Wage, they show how first a Conservative government in the 1970s, and more recently 'New Labour', have used in-work benefits so that today they have become the preferred instrument of intervention in the labour market for setting wages. The authors discuss the ways in which these measures - the new deals for lone parents and young people and the working family tax credit - address issues of child poverty and the adequacy of incomes, and how far they are disciplining devices to encourage a new moral order, supportive of family life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780333754436
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	12/20/2001
Edition description:	2002
Pages:	233
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

CHRIS GROVER is Lecturer in Applied Social Science in the Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University.

JOHN STEWART is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy in the Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Welfare to Work-Welfare: Making the Connection to Work The Conservatives, Neo-liberalism and Social Security Policy: The Development of Market Workfare 'New Labour' and the Modernization of Welfare: Extending Market Workfare Rôle Models and Traditional Moralities: The Development of In-Work Relief for Lone Mothers Taming 'Barbarians': Young Men, the Patriarchal Family and In-work Relief Speenhamland: In-work Relief at the Dawn of Modernity Family Allowances to Child Benefit: Keynesian In-work Relief Delivered by Beveridge? Conclusions: Regulation and Income Maintenance into the Twenty-first Century References Index

Editorial Reviews

'It is well-written, it presents its arguments clearly and concisely, and a great deal of detailed evidence is presented in support of specific claims...I strongly recommend this book...' - Peter Dwyer, University of Leeds, Social Policy

From the Publisher

Examining the way in which configurations of income maintenance programs (welfare) can be understood as mechanisms of economic management, Grover and Stewart (both of the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Lancaster U., UK) discuss how the relationship between out-of-work benefits and the lowest in-work wages effects workers with dependent children. They argue that work incentive and labor discipline measures are central to the reproduction of the patriarchal capitalist order. The supply of labor, the containment of inflation through the maintenance of a downward pressure on wages, and other characteristics of the system are all linked to neo-liberal ideas about the cultural basis of free markets and the reproduction of role models attached to the patriarchal family. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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