This critical and highly topical introduction to the current debates and politics surrounding welfare reform in the United Kingdom and the United States explains the origins and main tenets of the new Blair-Clinton orthodoxy.
Central to the book is an examination of this orthodoxy's appeal to the concept of social justice. Bill Jordan demonstrates how values derived from the family and voluntary associations are in danger of running counter to the more fundamental principles of liberal democracy and the requirements of transnational economic exchange. He links the new politics of welfare to liberal and communitarian theories of citizenship and social justice, and assesses the broader prospects for European social policy in