| HB-50065-11 | Research Programs: Awards for Faculty | Daniel Albert Engster | Justice and the Welfare State: A Non-Ideal Comparative Approach | 9/1/2011 - 8/31/2012 | $50,400.00 | Daniel | Albert | Engster | | | | University Of Houston | San Antonio | TX | 78249-1644 | USA | 2010 | Political Science, General | Awards for Faculty | Research Programs | 50400 | 0 | 50400 | 0 |
Most philosophical accounts of welfare state justice are highly abstract and idealized. As a result, they often fail to yield clear and useful guidance for policy-makers and citizens concerned with supporting just welfare state policies in the real, non-ideal world. My project develops a non-ideal, comparative approach to welfare state justice that offers clear and concrete guidance on the best welfare policies for promoting human well-being. I first outline a normative account of the specific goals that welfare states should aim to achieve given human vulnerabilities and recent shifts in family life, work, and ageing. I then draw on empirical data from 20 or so Western industrialized countries to identify the welfare state policies that best promote these normative goals in the areas of child well-being, education, health care, and old age and disability support. The ultimate result will be a book that outlines a clearer and more useful theory of welfare state justice. |