Political Theory

Although now a little dated in its policy detail, this book, published by Princeton University Press in its New French Thought series, retains interest as one of the first and influential efforts to articulate what we would now call a third way philosophy of the welfare state, particularly because it was written in a French, rather than Anglo-American, context. Rosanvallon argues that the French welfare state is rooted in an ‘insurance paradigm’ in which welfare is targeted at equally shared and unpredictable risks. However, this paradigm is increasingly problematic for a variety of reasons: increasing knowledge of risk factors at the individual level, and, not least, the labour market problems caused by social insurance charges on low-wage work and the related phenomenon of entrenched social exclusion. Rosanvallon argues that the welfare state must be refounded on the model of ‘solidarity’: as a purposefully, explicitly redistributive institution. The appeal to solidarity must be based on the idea of inclusion for mutual utility. This, he argues, points in the direction of programmes that seek to activate the marginalized using measures and supports suited to each individual case – the French Revenue Minimum d’Insertion and US-style workfare programmes are analysed as moves in this direction.