SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP AND ITS FETTERS

Some liberal theorists in Great Britain and the United States have fol lowed T. H. Marshall in defending welfare state practices with a rheto ric of social citizenship. They argue that social rights have enhanced freedom, promoted equality, ensured political stability and created a common civilization for members of these polities, Yet welfare state practices have also rendered the discourse of social citizenship ironi c by engendering a number of opposite results. restrictions on freedom as citizens are subject to bureaucratic and market disciplines, perpe tuation of inequality, and fostering of political instability through creating alienation. Liberal discourse on social citizenship thus prom otes conservative results and reinforces the power of market and state in ways that keep the citizen a subject.