The Evolving Agenda

Abstract

There was in a time when people talked about the ‘unfinished business of the welfare state’. The assumption was that there were a few more areas of need to be identified and problems to be solved; the edifice would then be complete, with only the cost of maintenance to worry about. That view was always naive, and the passing of the years has only served to confirm that social policy has to evolve continuously, just as society itself evolves. Needs change, expectations change, resources change, ideas change — and in each case the verb ‘change’ has both passive and an active meaning.