The Class Struggle and Welfare: Social Policy under Capitalism
Author:
David Matthews
ISBN:
9789395474689
Binding:
Hardcover
Year:
2025
Pages:
232
Size:
15 x 23 x 2 cm
Weight:
445 grams
Price:
INR
1195
1076.00
David Matthews argues that we must understand the welfare state as a dialectical phenomenon—a product of class struggle. Confronting the hypocritical rhetoric of politicians who castigate welfare beneficiaries as lazy and “workshy,” Matthews points to clear evidence that the welfare state is essential to the prosperity and health of capitalist economies. At the same time, in the Marxist tradition, Matthews moves well beyond an analysis of welfare as simply an instrument wielded by capitalism for its benefit, arguing that proof of the class struggle scars the surface of every welfare system.With chapters focusing on welfare issues, including social security, health, disability, housing, and education, Matthews examines historical and current developments in Britain as a basis for a wider understanding of the relationship between capitalism and welfare. The Class Struggle and Welfare shows that as welfare states grew exponentially throughout the advanced capitalist world over the course of a century, the intents, purposes and perceptions of the institution of welfare underwent a dialectical transformation. On the one hand, the services offered served to bolster capitalism. On the other hand, welfare systems in and of themselves were born of class struggle, and even as current welfare systems reflect the values and the needs of the capitalist arena, the influence and imprint of the working class is plain to see. The Class Struggle and Welfare ultimately looks to the future, arguing that the working class must consider an alternative type of welfare system—one which looks beyond the state and truly reflects the values of equality, solidarity, and community.
David Matthews
David Matthews is lecturer at Bangor University, Wales, and course director for the undergraduate program in health and social care, where he teaches subjects relating to welfare and the relationship between health and society. His previous publications examine the extent to which capitalism shapes the experience of health and wellbeing and influences the provision of social policies.
Editorial Reviews
“Of all the studies of Anglo-Muhammadan law, this is the most innovative and illuminating. In shifting the scholarly gaze from how colonial authorities fashioned this law to how Muslim legal practitioners of varied backgrounds engaged with it, Sohaira Siddiqui transforms our understanding of Islamic legal thought and practice under colonial rule.”
—Muhammad Qasim Zaman, author of Islam in Pakistan: A History
“This is the best book on Islamic law in South Asia in Western scholarship. Combining exceptionally sophisticated readings of Muslim scholarly texts with rigorous yet ingenious theorization of colonial power, Siddiqui fundamentally reorients our conception of the modern career of the Islamic legal tradition, in South Asia and beyond. A book of monumental significance that is as lyrically written as it is brilliant.”
—SherAli Tareen, author of Perilous Intimacies: Debating Hindu-Muslim Friendship after Empire
“Siddiqui offers the first in-depth study of the crucial role that Indian Muslim lawyers, judges, and jurists played in shaping the colonial administration of Islamic law. Through penetrating analysis across multiple languages and genres, she shows how these figures interwove colonial and Islamic epistemologies in ways that remain deeply relevant today.”
—Julia Stephens, author of Governing Islam: Law, Empire, and Secularism in Modern South Asia