ABSTRACT

A major role in the reproduction of the poor is played by the state through public services and transfer incomes-the ‘welfare state’. Welfare expenditures for the whole population make up the great majority of state expenditure in the developed countries. The latter expenditure has grown from a few per cent of GDP a hundred years ago to between 25 per cent and 55 per cent in different countries. This growth is testimony to the increasing inability of ‘pure’ capitalism-wages and commodity purchase-adequately to reproduce the population. The growing technical complexity of both the economy and social reproduction has increased demands on people’s capacities. But, as we saw in Chapters 1 and 2, growth of welfare has also developed through class pressures and political struggle (de Brunhof, 1978). Broadly the working population has fought for social-democratic reforms, particularly those of medium and low income, against the disciplinary and costcutting inclinations of capital. But they have also sometimes been supported by sections of business concerned with the availability and quality of labour power and with Britain’s competitiveness in productivity and product quality. The outcomes of these contradictions and struggles have varied over time (section 1.3) and between countries (section 7.4).