The new genetics is of undoubted importance to the future of welfare reform, but if this influence is not to be dominated by Right-wing values and prescriptions then some alternative conceptions need to be in place. This article begins by criticising the recent intervention by Charles Murray, insisting that Murray opens the door to a laissez faire eugenics. It then proceeds to outline a theory of regulated eugenics, justifying use of the concept ‘eugenics’ along the way, in terms of three elements: a multi-dimensional conception of human nature, differential egalitarianism and the precautionary principle. It then elaborates upon these ideas, and contrasts them with laissez faire eugenics, in a discussion of three areas of direct and immediate relevance to social policy: genetic screening, gene therapy and reproduction.

This article considers the public and voluntary sector relationship in housing provision from an historical and social science perspective. It pays particular attention to models based on markets, hierarchies and networks and presents an overview of voluntary action and state intervention in English housing since 1900. The article focuses on housing agencies with charitable status, and on three periods – pre-1914, the 1950s and the 1970s. For the first two periods, the emphasis is on the William Sutton Trust, England's largest house-building charity. In the latter period, attention shifts to Shelter, founded in 1967 and the most successful of the homelessness charities. In these case studies, the role of the courts, charity commissioners, government legal officers, Ministries responsible for housing, parliament and local authorities are discussed. The importance of attempts to politicise charity law and charitable status throughout the twentieth century is underlined. Central government is shown to play a significant part in this process, legitimising its preferred response from local authorities and voluntary agencies. A hierarchical interpretation of state intervention is tempered, however, by stressing the significance of unintended consequences attending central government's successive interventions in housing provision.

By any standard, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore are remarkable health care performers. In this article we document their performance – which in each case combines excellent outcomes with low cost – and argue that across all three cases it has a lot to do with the British colonial legacy. In particular, this legacy has generated a strong state role in health care provision. On the basis of these three experiences, we hold that health care reformers should shift their attention from finance, which continues to be something of an obsession for many contributors to debate, and look more closely at provision.

Drawing on neo-classical assumptions many studies generally assume negative effects of female labour supply with systems of married couples' joint taxation. By comparing the structure of rewards or concessions contained in the various tax systems for particular family employment patterns with the frequency distributions of the various family patterns of labour force participation that can be observed in ten different European countries, however, a clear ‘shaping effect’ of tax systems can not be found. This leads to the conclusion that the systems of family taxation alone can not explain emerging family patterns of labour force participation. Only if various social policies, such as the design of the tax system and labour market regulation, family policy, and – most important – childcare supply are coordinated to support a certain model of families' labour force participation that is in line with the preferences of families can a shaping effect be found.

While emerging UK policy in relation to adult protection confirms the theoretical primacy of prevention, the meaning thereof is unevenly elaborated. In residential and nursing care, prevention is explicitly promoted via a combination of transparent standards and rigorous regulation. In the domestic and civil spheres, however, the limits of public law protection mean that prevention cannot be conceived in terms of such a unitary model. Drawing on tentative messages from research, this paper explores a range of policies which, while diverse in their explicit aims, could claim to pursue an implicitly preventive objective in relation to abuse. These include community care provision, both generally and with an eye to national service objectives, together with specific funding for the promotion of independence, extending into wider self-help and social inclusion initiatives.

This article examines whether an extension of private finance would improve either the efficiency or the equity of the UK health care system. A number of arguments for increasing the role of private finance that focus on the impact of private finance on the efficiency of the public sector are examined in conjunction with empirical evidence from a number of OECD countries. The conclusion is that the case for some extension of private finance is finely balanced. There is little evidence to show that increasing private finance would improve the efficiency of the NHS. On the other hand, the evidence suggests that it is unlikely that increasing private finance at the margin will alter the support for the NHS, and thus willingness of individuals to pay taxes for public care. In addition, if private finance is supplementary, increased finance will be progressive in terms of payments for health care.

Contents

1 Social security and income maintenance

2 Health (formerly Health care)

3 Education

4 Housing and environment

5 Personal social services

6 Law and the treatment of the offender

7 Unemployment and the labour market

8 Race relations

9 The voluntary sector

10 Government (formerly Local government)

11 Gender

12 Demography