Question of Individual Freedoms VIS-A-VIS Welfare State

Abstract

In opposition to the welfare state, fundamental thesis of the neo-liberal approach rests on the assumption that the welfare state puts restrictions on the individual freedoms. All socially oriented interventions into the labour markets and especially an existing social security system are blamed by neo-liberal stand to prevent individual choices, and overthrowing the welfare state would be preferred as remedy to solve almost all problems. Here, this article aims to examine main neo-liberal premises under the light of empirical evidences, and analyses the effects of the welfare state on the individual freedoms by stressing on the poverty question. In this article, two major conclusions are gathered by comparative study of three forms of welfare models as liberal, conservative-democratic and social democratic in terms of their relative poverty rates of children: At first, in contrast with neo-liberal thesis, free market mechanisms are seem to be sources rather than solutions for poverty. Secondly, social policies of welfare state became very successful to struggle with the poverty question. Thus, social policies of the welfare state directed toward the preventing the poverty and alleviating the social conditions of peoples could be considered as the material basis of individual freedoms in which labouring classes become empowered for raising their political and social participation levels. Thus, individual freedoms are the matter of social rights and the welfare state achievements, and neo-liberal aims to take individual freedoms in opposition with welfare policies could be perceived as the manifestation of market forces in the name of unrestricted capital accumulation.

Özet

Sosyal devletin temel özgürlükleri sınırladığı savı, modelin tasfiyesini öneren neo-liberallerin temel dayanağıdır. Bu savın ampirik araştırma bulguları ışığında sorgulandığı makalede, sosyal devletin özgürlükler üzerindeki etkisi, yoksulluk ekseninde irdelenerek iki temel sonuca varılmaktadır: Piyasa mekanizmasının müdahalesiz işleyişi, neo-liberallerin öne sürdüğünün aksine, yoksulluğun önlenmesinin yolu değil; yoksulluğun kaynağıdır. Sosyal devlet, özgürlüğün bir numaralı engeli olan yoksullukla mücadelede başarılı olmuş; sosyal hakların tanınması, geniş toplum çoğunluğu için temel hak ve özgürlükleri kullanılabilir kılmıştır. Özgürlükleri artırma adına sosyal devlete karşı çıkanların amacı, sınırsız sermaye birikimi hareketi önünde engel olarak gördükleri sosyal koruma sisteminin tasfiyesidir. Bu nedenle sosyal devletçi kazanımların savunulması, temel hak ve özgürlüklerin savunulması ile özdeştir.