Ethics and Social Welfare Human interdependency and unconditional

Ethics and Social Welfare: Human interdependency and unconditional rights Hartley Dean London School of Economics

Outline 1. Ethics and morality 2. The hegemonic liberalindividualist ethic 3. Human (inter-)dependency 4. Human (co-)responsibilities 5. Unconditional rights ?

1. Ethics and morality • A contested distinction • A dialectical relationship Ethics Morals Cognitive ‘ethos’ Cultural ‘mores’ Values (what is ‘right’) Norms (what is ‘good’) Abstract principles Customary practices Doctrines (eternal) Codes (agreed) Systemic/universal Living/local

2. The hegemonic liberal-individualist ethic • Regards dependency and responsibility as inimical • Deep-rooted contractarian assumptions – The sovereignty of the bargaining/competitive human subject must be ‘traded’ to secure the minimum necessary level of social order – Civil and political rights take precedence over social rights which must remain (a) subordinate to political and legal processes; and (b) subject to ‘progressive realisation’ • Social rights and social liberalism – ‘Reluctant collectivism’ of Keynes and Beveridge – The Roosevelt legacy and the UDHR • The re-construction of social rights in a post-social era? – Equality of (moral) worth and the ‘covenant of opportunities and responsibilities’ – A test of ‘worth’: avoidance of (welfare) dependency – Welfare conditionality: no help without strings

3. Human (inter-)dependency • Alternative solidaristic conceptions of rights – The sovereignty of the attached/co-operative human subject must be ‘pooled’ to secure the maximum achievable level of social cohesion – Rights as a system of mutual protection premised on a collectively held recognition of individual vulnerability/frailty (Turner) • The struggle for recognition (Honneth) – The ‘ethical life’ depends on recognition through: • Love: self-identity • Solidarity: collective identity • Rights: mutual recognition of each other’s claims

3. Human (inter-)dependency (Contd…. /) • The right to (ontological) security – The distinction between categorical and ontological identity (Taylor): the noumenal self – Frailty and the right to social protection, social inclusion and ‘asylum’ • An ethic of care – Self-alienation from social humanity: capitalism’s fetishised notions of work, dependency and justice – Re-constituting individuals as interdependent ‘selvesin-relationship’; and social policy in terms of the organisation/ negotiation of how we care for and about each other (e. g. Sevenhuijsen/ Williams)

4. Human (co-)responsibilities Competing conceptions of responsibility ethical civic duty individualist/ contractarian coresponsibility collectivist/ solidaristic conditional moral obedience obligation moralistic

4. Human (co-)responsibilities (Contd…. /) • An (alternative) ethic of co-responsibility – The social negotiation of mutual obligation: beyond the mechanistic calculus of policy prescription – Apel: co-responsibility requires • Rational judgements, not moral traditions • An effective (global) communication community capable of acknowledging the needs/claims of all its members • Equal respect for scientific and ethical claims to truth • Constituting personhood – Minimum material provision is as constitutive of personhood as liberty or autonomy and reflects extent to which we each have ethical responsibility for everybody else (Griffin)

The evidence (from UK): • Popular discourse – Is capable (reluctantly) of acknowledging human interdependency – Is ensnared by a narrow (ethically individualistic) notion of responsibility – Accedes to the inalienability of certain human rights, but is inhibited from translating awareness of interdependency into support for universal social rights

Conclusion To promote an ethically premised unconditional rights-based approach to social welfare provision would be: • Jolly nice (Pooh) • Ever so difficult (Eyore) • Tremenously exciting (Tigger)