Who killed social welfare?

Abstract

Abstract Social welfare policy is a modernist enterprise that grew out of the Enlightenment project. By attacking the theoretical foundation of Enlightenment thought, postmodernism directly challenges the theoretical foundation of social welfare policy. As postmodern theory is increasingly used to ‘deconstruct’ social policy, the means to justify the welfare state are at risk of collapsing. It will be argued that, despite all its acclaim, postmodern theory has not only functioned as an ally of neoliberalism, postmodern theory has obscured the problems of mushrooming inequality, increasing privatisation of public and social services and, the erosion of the welfare state by framing these issues as questions of difference, diversity and choice. Through a re-examination of the Enlightenment project as it relates to the theoretical foundation of the welfare state, it will be argued that the welfare state requires a notion of collective responsibility, a position that is theoretically supported by psychoanalytic theory. Applied to social welfare, psychoanalytic theory could provide the intellectual tools to develop and justify policies; it offers a theoretical method to re-establish the welfare state as an ideal of the democratic project.