Talk to Catholic University in Lisbon on developing a deeper understanding of citizenship and its relevance to defending and redefining the welfare state.

1. The Citizen in the Welfare State
Reflections on T H Marshall’s Citizenship and Social Class
Dr Simon Duffy ￭ The Centre for Welfare Reform
￭ 6th June 2013 ￭ Universidade Catolica Portuguesa,
Lisbon

2. Aristotle’s formsAristotle’s forms LeftLeft RightRight
Monarchy Socialism Conservatism
Aristocracy
Left-
liberalism
Right-
liberalism
Polity Republicanism

4. 1.Marshall was right to say that citizenship should be central to how
we defend and define the welfare state.
2.However the four main traditions of political theory are not theories
of citizenship and they do not value citizenship.
3.Marshall’s focus on collective social rights reveals the limitations
of his vision for citizenship: these are not the key social rights.
4.Moreover if we only focus just on rights we miss the two other
critical dimensions of citizenship: duty and freedom.
5.Citizenship’s value is to help us to be different yet live together
respectfully as equals, in a community that we take care of.
6.If we used citizenship to design the welfare state then it would
look very different.
7.Any move to citizenship will face resistance from the existing elites;
however change is possible and desirable.

5. Marshall was right to say that social rights are an aspect
of citizenship and that citizenship should be central to
the design of our society (including the welfare state).
a) This means citizenship becomes how we defend the
welfare state - Is this going to make the welfare state
stronger?
b) But then the welfare state must also be defined by
citizenship - Is the welfare state actually helping to
advance citizenship?
Obviously (a) depends on (b).

6. What is a collective social right?
• I have a need for
something
• The state may respond as a
matter of right
• But I have no power to
exercise that right
• The state control how to
meet my need

7. Expectations officially recognised as legitimate are not
claims that must be met in each case when presented.
They become, as it were, details in a design for
community living. The obligation of the state is towards
society as a whole, whose remedy in case of default lies
in parliament or a local council, instead of to individual
citizens, whose remedy lies in a court of law, or at least in
a quasi-judicial tribunal. The maintenance of a fair
balance between these collective and individual
elements in social rights is of vital importance to the
democratic socialist state.
T H Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class

9. When do rights become just
professional gifts?

10. self-directed support and personal
budgets

12. citizenship is not just about rights

13. citizenship achieves much more than rights

14. Here [in the Greek polis] the meaning of politics, in
distinction to its end, is that men in their freedom can
interact with one another, as equals among equals,
commanding and obeying one another only in
emergencies - that is, in time of war - but otherwise
managing all their affairs by speaking with and
persuading one another.
Aristotle explains that a community is not made out of
equals, but on the contrary of people who are different
and unequal. The community comes into being
through equalising, 'isathenai.' [Nich. Ethics 1133 a 14]
Arendt, The Promise of Politics

15. So what does this all mean for the welfare state?

16. 5 possible pro-citizen reforms
1.Radical shift of power to local communities
2.Protect social rights with constitutional reform
3.Remove stigma and poverty in one tax-benefit
system with guaranteed minimum income
4.Give families more control over the education of
their children
5.Reduce spending on institutional care

17. The welfare state is essential because it exists to
make effective our citizenship.
But is it designed to support citizenship or does it
undermine citizenship?
If the welfare state is failing to support citizenship
then can we expect people to defend it as a
constitutive part of citizenship?

18. Resistance, but...
1.Groups of citizens are organising and will
continue to do so, austerity may encourage new
thinking
2.The current system will continue to be sterile, the
on-going drive to out-sourcing will not work
3.Moral leaders may ask tougher questions as the
problems continue and injustice grows
4.Leadership elites may tire of ruling and seek
equality

19. Our constitution is called a democracy because power is
in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people.
When it is a question of settling private disputes,
everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of
putting one person before another in positions of public
responsibility, what counts is not membership of a
particular class, but the actual ability which the man
possesses. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of
service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because
of poverty. And just as our political life is free and open,
so is our day-to-day life in our relations with each other.
Pericles