Introduction

The extent to which an individual's rights to social welfare should be linked to personal responsibility and behaviour is an enduring theme of social policy and welfare debates. In the post-Second World War period social democratic theorists such as Marshall (1950) and Titmuss (1958), who were influential in setting out the scope and vision of the welfare state, emphasised the fundamental importance of universal citizenship and entitlement to an extensive set of (largely unconditional) social rights, with individuals meeting their responsibilities through a shared sense of duty. Focusing on the substantive rights, rather than the attendant responsibilities, of citizenship, they wished to ensure that public welfare would lessen inequalities and foster a sense of social solidarity between citizens, and were largely dismissive of explanations of poverty based on personal failings or inappropriate individual behaviour (Deacon, 2002). Subsequently, such rights-based conceptualisations of social citizenship and their envisioning of unconditional, status-based entitlement to welfare, have been comprehensively challenged. New Right thinkers (for example, Murray, 1984; 1999; Mead, 1986; 1997), new communitarian commentators (Etzioni, 1997; 1998) and proponents of conservative, centre right ‘Third Way’ politics (Giddens, 1994; 1998; Blair, 1998; Etzioni, 2000) all share a common view that unconditional entitlement to social welfare benefits promotes passive welfare ‘dependency’. In the UK this has led to a

Today social citizenship has been reframed around a logic of individualised responsibility whereby the right to claim welfare is directly linked to distinct, specified and socially valorised prior contributions (Taylor-Gooby, 2009; Lister, 2011); an understanding that undermines the value and legitimacy of certain other social contributions (such as informal, familial care), while emphasising the validity of paid employment, as central to definitions of citizenship. Beyond the UK, welfare conditionality has been a vital component of much welfare reform within and beyond Europe (Cox, 1998; Dwyer, 1998; 2004; 2008; Lødemel and Trickey, 2001; Deacon, 2002; Dean et al, 2005; Wright, 2012) and is a fundamental element of the ongoing shift from the so called ‘passive’ welfare state of the past to the ‘active’ welfare state of today (Walters, 1997).