In Place of Fear

Abstract

Over the last decade the welfare state has aroused vigorous opposition. Its critics argue that it is extravagantly expensive and extremely inefficient. They suggest that it provides inferior services in return for compulsory contributions. They complain that it weakens the spirit of enterprise by penalising the successful with taxation and rewarding the indolent with benefits. At the same time patients and welfare claimants complain about slow, inefficient and often rude service. Once almost above criticism, the British welfare state is now a subject of controversy. ‘Amidst our well publicized difficulties’, Margaret Thatcher has argued, ‘a vital new debate is beginning, or perhaps an old debate is being renewed, about the proper role of government, the welfare state and the attitudes on which it rests.’¹