Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with an examination of Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian-based recommendations for pauper management. It provides the inegalitarian liberal theory of the contemporary New Right. The book demonstrates the inadequacy of the celebrated liberal contribution to the question of public assistance. It examines mid- to late-twentieth-century liberal democratic arguments in favor of public assistance, including arguments founded on theories of the social rights of citizenship, state-funded independence, and contract. The book highlights the relationship between freedom, citizenship, and state action in light of a theory of participatory democracy. It discusses the language of freedom from the constraints of inegalitarian liberty and identifies freedom with autonomy. The book concludes with the argument that the provision of public assistance is an integral component of participatory democratic citizenship.