From ‘welfare’ to ‘workfare’, and back again?

Abstract

All of the advanced societies must provide their citizens with protection against risk in order to secure continued economic and political stability. In Britain, we have seen major welfare reforms and shifts in public opinion towards the role of the state in providing social security, while in other advanced nations support for social protection still commands popular support. In this chapter we consider theories of the policymaking processes and changing public attitudes towards unemployment protection in the ‘welfare’ state, drawing on national and comparative social survey data spanning more than three decades for the analyses.