ABSTRACT
First, we will need to deal once and for all with the problem of the previous negative associations of the term. Charity’s history as a device for justifying capitalism’s excesses and mitigating its worst consequences is still not forgotten. There is a real risk that an uncritically updated version could serve, as Victorian philanthropy often did, as an instrument for social control or become a mere mechanical device for engaging the trivial benevolence of the new rich, still doubtful whether charitable giving is sufficiently taxefficient.
