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Welfare States: A Response to John Veit–Wilson
Author(s) -
Atherton Charles
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9515.00285
Subject(s) - limiting , welfare state , welfare , poverty , economics , state (computer science) , scope (computer science) , limit (mathematics) , positive economics , public economics , law and economics , neoclassical economics , sociology , political science , law , economic growth , market economy , politics , mathematics , mechanical engineering , computer science , programming language , engineering , mathematical analysis , algorithm
The article, “States of welfare: a conceptual challenge” (Veit–Wilson 2000) has received considerable attention. It suggested that the term “welfare state” had ceased to have sufficient analytical or descriptive usefulness. Here it is argued that it remains possible to distinguish those societies that have used the welfare state to reduce substantially the depth and incidence of poverty. It is suggested that Veit–Wilson seeks to limit the description “welfare state” to those societies that provide a guaranteed annual income and that this Rawlsian approach is too limiting and will not work in practice.