Beyond Entitlement

Library Journal

The main problem with the welfare state, Mead asserts, is its permissiveness, not its size. Too much emphasis is given to ``taking'' (entitlements) and not enough to ``giving'' (social obligations). The challenge to welfare statesmanship, he argues, is not so much either to cut back, the conservative solution, or to increase entitlements, the liberal remedy, as to make them conditional on the willingness of beneficiaries to work. This, he says, is a necessary condition for society's acceptance of the poor into the mainstream. Welfare programs with compulsory work requirements are few so far, but public attitudes and government policies are turning around. Mead's timely and closely reasoned analysis makes a strong intellectual and moral case for a more authoritative welfare policy. Recommended. Harry Frumerman, formerly with Economics Dept., Hunter Coll., CUNY