ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview and an introduction to some of the key debates about the assumptions, values and theories which are most relevant to current social-policy questions in Australia. It looks at debates about freedom and equality; rights and needs which have long been at the core of debates about social policy priorities. The chapter argues that debates about social purposes and ideals have become more complex in the face of the fragmentation of cultural values and the centralisation of power associated with the shift to globalised patterns of communication and decision making. Prime Minister Paul Keating has made much of the idea that Australia should become a republic and that all Australian citizens should share a common allegiance to the Republic of Australia rather than the Queen of England. The most significant modern contribution to debates about citizenship has been the work of T.H. Marshall.
