ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the more general questions which have been raised concerning the state’s role in promoting an equal distribution of social welfare benefits. The task of improving and equalising the distribution of welfare falls therefore not to the economic system but to the political process. The principle of equality will be relevant to deciding what form these services should take, but it is impossible to use the principle a priori to stipulate that state provision is always desirable. The legitimate extension of state activity therefore depends upon prior consent by citizens. It seems to the author that this gives a coherent interpretation to the Rawlsian requirement that the equal liberty principle be made lexicographically prior to the principle governing the distribution of economic benefits. Local autonomy does not therefore necessarily result in variations in service provision which are contrary to the principles of social justice.
