ABSTRACT
As discussed earlier in Chapter 1, it is impossible to consider the concepts of individual vulnerability and vulnerable groups in social policy terms without understanding the political environment in which these ideas have been crafted. Historically there has been a shifting balance between explanations which outline vulnerability as a consequence of either the social or economic circumstances experienced by the individual which are largely out of their control or the failure of the individual to make the right moral choices and live a responsible life. In political terms the former, which was influential during the post-war consensus on the British welfare state, is associated with the left and the latter has to a considerable extent become the preferred explanation of vulnerability for those ideologically on the right and has become an increasing feature of contemporary social policy. This chapter will consider how these ideas have played out in recent social policy developments, as well as exploring the broad themes which have been influential in contemporary social policy reform. Explanations for vulnerability which focus on individual choices and lifestyles
re-emerged following the Conservative election victory in 1979. Those on the ideological right noted with interest the work of Charles Murray, who in 1984 published his now infamous Losing Ground: Amercian Social Policy, 1950-1980, a book that made reference to the role of social policy in contributing to the emergence of an underclass in the US through the provision of support which was seen to create dependency. Murray’s ideas proved popular with Conservatives, especially those at the neo-liberal end of the spectrum, and he was subsequently invited by The Sunday Times to visit the UK in 1989 to explore whether similar social trends could be observed here. Later works ‘confirmed’ the emergence of a British underclass (Murray 1990, 1994) and contributed to debates aiming to justify a shift
in how the poor were viewed and treated. These debates have contributed heavily to subsequent social policy reforms introduced during the Conservative government of 1979-1997, the New Labour government of 1997-2010 and continue to provide the rationale for recent Coalition social policy developments. To a degree it could be argued that the Labour governments of the 1960s and
1970s continued to be influenced by the politics of solidarity which had emerged after the Second World War as part of the so-called ‘post-war’ settlement, as outlined by Wolfe and Klausen:
The left demanded the creation and expansion of the welfare state. Public policy should redistribute income and subsidize, if not deliver directly, essential services such as education and health. The ideal was a society in which the inequalities associated with social class would fade away.
