ABSTRACT
Alongside the protests of the victims of change, there was a realisation on the part of others of the dangers of thoroughgoing laissez faire. In this chapter, the author have proceeded instead with the conviction that in order to understand what social justice meant to our ancestors, it is best to consider first the issues that most agitated them. It is necessary to understand how social justice entered their political discourse. The market threatened to erode all ties of mutuality and sociality, leaving just one brittle bond, the cash nexus. There is a development which follows the development in the meaning of social justice. There are periods when the force for change is strong, seminal occasions when new institutions are thrown up which seem better able to express social needs and values. The particular ambiguity of the welfare state surely stems from the fact that it is itself a site of conflict.
