Freedom, Equality and the Market

Arguments on Social Policy

Barry Hindess

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781135800536
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This new textbook for students of social theory considers the role of public intervention in social and economic processes. It is a clear, critical discussion of different theoretical and political perspectives on social policy.

Barry Hindess begins with the 'consensus' view, shared by senior politicians, civil servants, and academics throughout much of the postwar period. This view depends on two beliefs: in the capacity of government to manage the economy; and in the development of a qualitatively new relationship between the state and the population. The first is discussed in relation to Crosland's The Future of Socialism, and the second in relation to Marshall's conception of citizenship and Titmuss's account of social policy.

The consensus view generated serious objections, and Hindess examines two in particular. One is the argument that the view itself causes a destructive, competitive struggle between sectional interests for state intervention in their favour. The other, from the left, is that what Tawney called 'the strategy of equality' has failed, and that a more radical attack on inequality is required.

The remaining section looks at the Marxist and liberal alternatives to the consensus view. In conclusion, the author discusses firstly the essentialism of the market both in consensus and (in very different ways) in liberal and Marxist thought; and secondly the place of principles such as freedom and equality in political discussion and the analysis of social conditions. He shows that market and plan are not necessarily incompatible.

Freedom, Equality, and the Market, with its careful assessment of the key texts, will be important reading for undergraduate students of sociology and social policy.

Subject index

administrative discretion 137

After the New Right (Bosanquet) 120

Anarchy, State and Utopia (Nozick) 140, 160

Austria 57

balance of trade 24

benefits scramble 72–74, 76

Beveridge Report (1942) 7, 94

blood donation 39–41

bourgeoisie 102, 104, 109, 118

Britain Against Itself: The Political Contradictions of Collectivism (Beer) 5, 64

Britain’s Economic Problem: Too Few Producers (Bacon and Eltis) 63

British Capitalism: Workers and the Profits Squeeze (Glyn and Sutcliffe) 63

Budget 14, 28

business, and government 65–68

capital accumulation 106, 107, 108, 113, 117

capitalism: collapse of 14; instability of 16, 17; maintenance of 108–109; mode of production 24, 100, 102–102, 107; overthrow of 14, 54, 102; rise of 33, 34; and state 104–110; systemic character 106; transformation of 12–17, 21, 22, 65

capitalist class: power of 3, 16, 28; served by state 107–108, 113

capitalist economy 1, 3, 7, 35

choice 125, 139, 141, 142

citizenship: civil component 33; growth of 3, 12, 19–20, 33, 54, 62, 107; and inflation 49–60; integrative role 41; and market 33–37, 43; political component 33; principles of 8, 52, 60, 60, 148; realization of 52, 54; rights of 52, 60; and social class 33–36; social component 33, 33; and social integration 36–38; and working class 49–52

Citizenship and Social Class (Marshall) 33–34

‘civic culture’ 77

civilization 36–39

civil rights 34, 52, 54

civil service 62, 70, 143, 144

class struggle 5, 46, 100; in Marxist analysis 117–117; as motor of history 102, 104; and structure of society 101–104, 106, 114

class system 33–34, 39, 49, 52

coercion 126, 129, 132, 151, 152, 157, 159; in employment 158; planning as 146, 148; unemployment as 128

collective bargaining 57, 74

collecti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• I Introduction
• II Government and the economy
• III Citizenship and the market
• IV Citizenship and inflation
• V The contradictions of collectivism
• VI The ‘strategy of equality’ reconsidered
• VII Marxism
• VIII Liberalism
• IX Freedom, equality, and the market
• References
• Name index
• Subject index