Knights, Knaves or Pawns? Human Behaviour and Social Policy

Abstract

There are two fundamental changes currently under way in the welfare state. These are the development of quasi-markets in welfare provision, and the supplementation of 'fiscal' welfare by 'legal' welfare: policies that rely on redistributing income through regulation and other legal devices, instead of through the tax and social security system. This article argues that these changes are in part the result of a fundamental shift in policy-makers' beliefs concerning human motivation and behaviour. People who finance, operate and use the welfare state are no longer assumed to be either public spirited altruists (knights) or passive recipients of state largesse (pawns); instead they are all considered to be in one way or another self-interested (knaves). However, since neither the 'new' nor the 'old' set of assumptions are based on evidence, policies based on the new set are as likely to fail as those based on the old. What is needed are 'robust' policies that are not dependent on any simple view of human behaviour. 'In contriving any system of government, and fixing the several checks and controls of the constitution, every man ought to be supposed a knave and to have no other end, in all his actions, than private interest. By this interest, we must govern him and, by means of it, notwithstanding his insatiable avarice and ambition, co-operate to the public good. ' (David Hume, 1875, pp. 117-18) 'If it is accepted that man has a sociological and biological need to help, then to deny him opportunities to express this need is to deny him the freedom to enter into gift relationships. ' (Richard Titmuss, 1971, p. 243) There are two fundamental changes currently under way in the welfare states of Britain and other developed countries, each rather different from the other. One -the replacement of the state provision of

The effortful citizen: Discursive social psychology and welfare reform

“…However, although some authors have explored the way in which welfare policy has embodied certain assumptions about human nature and behaviour (e.g. Deacon & Mann, 1999;Le Grand, 1997), there is as yet no exploration of the role of constructions of the psychological, and the use of specific psychological terms, in everyday discourse about welfare. In the present paper, I want to argue that social actors can use psychological terms in order to deal with issues of accountability on several levels in relation to welfare.…”

Welfare user roles in a conservative welfare state. Are Germans citizens, consumers or co-producers?

“…Only few scholars have highlighted multiple user roles that go beyond the citizen-consumer dichotomy (Shaw and Aldridge 2003;Le Grand 1997;Ewert 2013).…”

“…Moreover, the concept of a proxy-user points to a principal-agent split of user roles (Le Grand 1991). For instance, students are primary welfare users that act as…”

Expert Patients and Human Agency: Long-term Conditions and Giddens' Structuration Theory

“…There has been something of a revival of interest in the role of human agency in social policy in recent years (Deacon and Mann, 1999;Greener, 2002;Hoggett, 2001;Le Grand, 1997;Taylor-Gooby et al, 2000). This is a welcome incursion of the world of social theory into social policy, making explicit the assumptions policymakers often hold concerning the nature of welfare recipients who can cast new light upon the policymaking process and also upon the likely success of the policies produced.…”

“…What both writers agree on, however, is that individuals hold the power within them to 'escape' from their present circumstances, should they choose to do so. Whereas Murray tends to assume 'knavish' (Le Grand, 1997) behaviour on the part of benefit recipients (albeit in response to perverse incentive structures), Giddens takes a more optimistic view that we can all become 'knights'. The dependency culture, in the view of both writers, is something that must be overcome, but through different mechanisms according to their view of human nature.…”