ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the specific policy that can ensure autonomy, that is, a policy that can guarantee the capacity to participate in democratic politics. The provision of economic resources by a party other than the beneficiary can in fact contribute to one's autonomy. Autonomy depends on access to and control over economic resources, in order that one may satisfy one's human needs for physical survival and psychological health. In light of a participatory democratic model of citizenship, public assistance can satisfy the condition of autonomy. In contrast to the New Right, the relationship between citizenship and welfare benefits seems similar to the arguments for the right to welfare. Welfare provision is required, therefore, to help constitute the citizenship of the nonworking poor. Undeniably any argument for welfare provision is grounded in some moral assumption about the worth of humankind.
