ABSTRACT
The field of social welfare is no exception to this generalisation. Thirty years ago, Marshall felt able to describe the twentieth century as the century of social rights. There are suggests three principal reasons. First, and perhaps most importantly, to claim a right is to make a claim of special force. A second reason has to do with provision of welfare by the state. State provision, by way of taxation, involves an element of compulsion. Third, there is the problem of stigma. Receiving welfare benefits as a matter of charity, stigmatises; receiving them as a matter of right does not – or so it is generally thought. Welfare rights, it is argued, are rights against particular governments or particular communities rather than the world at large and are, therefore, possessed in virtue of one's membership of a particular society rather than one's membership of the human race.
