Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:35:12.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Restructuring the Welfare State: An Analysis of Public Expenditure, 1979/80–1984/85*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Ray Robinson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since the election of the Thatcher Government in 1979, public expenditure on the welfare state has undergone a series of changes. The nature of change has, however, often been obscured by the use of inadequate and misleading statistical data. This paper presents a systematic examination of public expenditure on education, health care, housing and social security over the period 1979/80 to 1984/85. It shows that, contrary to much political rhetoric, the major changes in the welfare state have not always arisen from reductions in programme expenditures, but from changes in the composition of expenditure. It is the latter that has often increased economic inequality and can be legitimately referred to as ‘restructuring’.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Board of Inland Revenue (1984), Inland Revenue Statistics, 1984, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Cockle, P. (ed.)(1984), Public Expenditure Policy, 1984–85, Macmillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, G. and Piachaud, D. (1983), ‘Social policy and the economy’, in Glennerster, H. (ed.), The Future of the Welfare State, Heinemann, London, pp. 40–60.Google Scholar
Department of Education and Science (1984), Handbook of Education Unit Costs, 1982–83, CIPFA, London.Google Scholar
Department of the Environment (1984), Housing and Construction Statistics Quarterly, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Department of Health and Social Security (1984), The Statistics of Residential Accommodation for the Elderly and for Younger Physically Handicapped People at 31 March 1983, England, RA/83/2, DHSS, London.Google Scholar
Disney, R. (1984), ‘Social security’, in Cockle (1984), pp. 149–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
English, J. (1982a), ‘Must council housing become welfare housing? Part I’, Housing Review, 09–10, 31:5, 154–6.Google Scholar
English, J. (1982b), ‘Must council housing become welfare housing? Part II’, Housing Review, 11–12, 31:6, 212–3.Google Scholar
English, J. (ed.)(1982c), The Future of Council Housing, Croom Helm, London.Google Scholar
Forrest, R. and Murie, A. (1983), ‘Residualization and council housing: Aspects of changing social relations of housing tenure’, Journal of Social Policy, 12:4, 453–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, A. (1984), ‘Real resources and unreal assumptions: The case of the NHS’, Public Money, 4:3, 58–62.Google Scholar
Griffiths, D. (1984), ‘A housing stance for Labour’, in Labour Housing Group, Right to a Home, Spokesman, Nottingham, pp. 20–35.Google Scholar
Hastings, S. and Levie, H. (eds)(1983), Privatization?, Spokesman, Nottingham.Google Scholar
Heald, D. (1983), Public Expenditure: Its Defence and Reform, Martin Robertson, Oxford.Google Scholar
HM Treasury (1984a), The Government's Expenditure Plans, 1984–85 to 1986–87, Cmnd 9143–I, II, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
HM Treasury (1984b), The Next Ten Years: Public Expenditure and Taxation in the 1990s, Cmnd 9189, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
HM Treasury (1985), The Government's Expenditure Plans, 1985–86 to 1987–88, Cmnd 9428–I, II, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
House of Commons (1984a), Weekly Hansard, No. 1317, 2–6 07, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
House of Commons (1984b), Public Expenditure on the Social Services, Fourth Report from the Social Services Commitee, Session 1983–84, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Judge, K. (1982), ‘The growth and decline of social expenditure’, In Walker, A. (ed.), Public Expenditure and Social Policy, Heinemann, London, pp. 27–48.Google Scholar
Kirwan, R. (1984). ‘The demise of public housing?’, in Le Grand and Robinson (1984), pp. 133–45.Google Scholar
Grand, J. Le and Robinson, R. (eds)(1984), Privatisation and the Welfare State, George Allen & Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Lewis, S. and Harrison, A. (1983), ‘How real are “real-terms” Resources?’, Public Money, 3:2, 54–8.Google Scholar
Maynard, A. and Ludbrook, A. (1980), ‘Budget allocation in the National Health Service’, Journal of Social Policy, 9:3, 289–312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maynard, A. (1984), ‘Health and personal social services’, in Cockle (1984), p. 128–48.Google Scholar
Millward, R. and Parker, D. (1983), ‘Public and private enterprise: Comparative behaviour and relative efficiency’, in Millward, R. (ed.), Public Sector Economics, Longman, London, pp. 199–274.Google Scholar
Murie, A. (1983), Housing Inequality and Deprivation, Heinemann, London.Google Scholar
O'Higgins, M. (1983), ‘Rolling back the welfare state: The rhetoric and reality of public expenditure and social policy under the Conservative Government’, in Jones, C. and Stevenson, J. (eds), The Yearbook of Social Policy in Britain, 1982, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, pp. 153–78.Google Scholar
Townsend, P. and Davidson, N. (eds)(1982), Inequalities in Health: The Black Report, Penguin, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Walker, A. (ed.)(1982), Community Care, Basil Blackwell and Martin Robertson, Oxford.Google Scholar
Walker, A. (1984), ‘The political economy of privatization’, in Le Grand and Robinson (1984), pp. 19–44.Google Scholar
Whitehead, C. (1983), ‘Housing under the Conservatives’, Public Money, 3:1, 15–21.Google Scholar
Whitehead, C. (1974), ‘Defining a role for public housing’, Public Money, 4:2, 29–32.Google Scholar