ABSTRACT
The terms of discourse which are used about social policy in Britain and France are fundamentally different - so divergent that there is no obvious basis for a dialogue. The French rarely refer to the idea of the 'welfare state'. The French model is conceptually distinct from other models of welfare. Welfare is not based in citizenship or a 'right to welfare'. When the French want to talk about what British people mean by a welfare state, they talk about solidarity or social protection. To the British, by contrast, the idea of 'solidarity' has nothing to do with mutual aid or redistribution; it is mainly to do with collective action and standing together. The difference is not just a matter of language; it is based in two very different models of social policy. People who are excluded from society have somehow to be incorporated into social networks. This is referred to as 'insertion' into society.
