Citizenship, dependency, and the welfare mix: problems of inclusion and exclusion

Citizenship is a site of social conflict which (among other things) involves struggle about the role of government in welfare. This article explores some of the responses to recent pressures on the welfare state in relation to new administrative structures for mass welfare and to the arrangements for managing unemployed people. The experience of the United Kingdom is compared with that of countries with more pluralist traditions of administration. The general point being made is that some changes may both reinforce the possibilities for struggle over welfare by those within the ambit of the mass welfare services, and simultaneously permit the development of stronger barriers to exclude minorities. The first of these developments is not necessarily what the authors of policy change anticipate, while the second conflicts with common expectations of welfare citizenship. Welfare citizenship cuts two ways.