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Exit and Voice in the Future of the Welfare State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Colin Crouch
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Extract

THE ANTITHESIS BETWEEN INDIVIDUALISM AND COLLECTIVISM which dominates political discussion of the welfare state and many other political issues confuses more than it illuminates. First, the individual of market liberal theory is a curious entity, existin solely as a disembodied unit in market transactions. Secondly, the ‘choice’ which is the means by which units in the liberal system express their freedom is highly constrained: they choose solely between items offered in the market. Such a choice confers power on the choosing individual, but it also limits that power: choices may be made only within the framework that the market provides. Liberal theory is explicit about this; it is this limitation on the behaviour of individuals that protects mankind from tyranny. But by no means all the constraints it imposes are of this kind. If consumers are ill-equiped to choose they are made dependent on the providers ofthe service, who may, if competition is imperfect, acquire something of a dictatorial position themselves.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , 01 July 1985 , pp. 407 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1985

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References

1 Hayek, F. yon, The Mirage of Social Justice, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976, ch. 10Google Scholar.

2 Especially in Titmuss, R., The Gift Relationship, London, Allen & Unwin, 1970 Google Scholar.

3 Hirschman, A. O., Exit, Voice and Loyalty, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1970 Google ScholarPubMed.

4 Olson, M., The Logic of Collective Action, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1965 Google Scholar.

5 West, E. G., Education: A Framework for Choice, London, Institute of Economic Affairs, 1970 Google Scholar.

6 This was the view frequently adopted by Anthony Crosland, despite his sympathy for active participation ( Crosland, C. A. R., Socialism Now, London, Fabian Society, 1973 Google Scholar).

7 Bell, D., The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, London, Heinemann, 1976, ch. 6Google Scholar.