Abstract
One hundred and fifty years ago, the French political philosopher de Tocqueville surveyed the new forms of poverty which were emerging in the Europe of his time. He compared the then most advanced society, England, with countries such as Portugal and Spain and he came to ‘a very extraordinary and apparently inexplicable’ conclusion. ‘The countries appearing to be the most impoverished are those which in reality account for the fewest indigents’, whereas in the richer countries ‘one part of the population is obliged to rely on the gifts of the other in order to live’ (de Tocqueville, 1835).
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© 1990 Graham Room
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Room, G. (1990). Introduction. In: ‘New Poverty’ in the European Community. Social Dimension of the Single European Market. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21088-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21088-6_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-21090-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-21088-6
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