Politics, Inequality and the Australian Welfare State After Liberalisation
By (author) Ben Spies-Butcher
Publication date:
03 October 2023Publisher
Anthem PressDimensions:
229x153mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781839988400
Neoliberalism has transformed work, welfare, and democracy. However, its impacts, and its future, are more complex than we often imagine. Alongside growing inequality, social spending has been rising. Medicare was entrenched alongside privatization. How do we understand this contradictory politics, and what opportunities are there to advance equality? This book takes the three big drivers of inequality – conditionality of benefits, marketisation of services and financialisation of the life course– to explore how inequality has been contested. Alongside the rise of the market, it reveals the building blocks of a more egalitarian order and opportunities for new models of solidarity based on an ethic of care.
In an era when people active in and supportive of the welfare state are feeling cornered by financial logic and the constant threat of austerity, this book opens a debate about forms of political activism that centre on welfare that should inspire many readers — Dick Bryan, Emeritus Professor, Political Economy, University of Sydney.