ABSTRACT
In this chapter we start from Marshall's model of citizenship as an expression of equal status that is built around the gradual unfolding of three sets of rights – civil, political and social. However, when it comes to the practical delivery of what he terms ‘full membership’ of society, then this seems to rest quite heavily on the ‘social element’. Indeed, Marshall recognised that civil and political rights had little direct effect on social inequality without the addition of material guarantees. However, Lockwood notes that the equalising role of citizenship as a common status, particularly in its social dimension, is hard to sustain when status judgements are as closely tied to material success as they are in a capitalist market economy. Hence, we see how welfare provision is closely implicated in the structuring of both formal and informal inequalities.
