Risk and the welfare state

The British welfare state developed as a state-centred response to the prob lem of handling the risks encountered in a typical life-course. The influen tial work of Giddens and others implies that the traditional welfare state is under attack from two directions: a changing international politico-econ omic environment limits the freedom of national governments to pursue indep endent policies involving relatively high taxation to finance social spendi ng. At the same time, changes in the experience of risk and declining confi dence in the expertise of welfare state planners and professionals undermin e support for state-centred solutions. This approach fails to acknowledge t hat available non-state services are often inadequate to meet many everyday life risks and that the authority of private sector advisers, insurers and professionals is also increasingly open to question. This article discusse s whether people reject welfare state solutions to problems of risk in the context of research on the perceptions and behaviour of people buying or se lling their homes, considering provision for long-term care needs and defra uding social security carried out by the ESRC's Economic Beliefs and Behavi our programme. Individual responses endorse the continued provision of stat e welfare in order to meet unprovided risks alongside disenchantment with t he record of both state and private professionals and planners and awarenes s that state retrenchment requires greater individual responsibility for me eting one's own needs. The theory of risk society requires development to r ecognize that citizens are not necessarily alienated from state welfare.