Australia. The Australian welfare state is at a crossroads. As Australians enter the new century they will need to understand their past, comprehend the present and be willing to invent a future worth having. Why was the welfare state established? How does it work? What kinds of ideas have driven it? Where is it headed? The book aims to bring the structural features of the welfare state to life in a series of analyses of the development and distinctive character of government provision. The central theme is that the provision of services responds to the changing definitions which protagonists give to citizenship. The shifting conceptions of the two central perspectives - economic liberalism and social liberalism - and the critiques of Marxists and other radicals are brought together in a review of the intellectual, organizational and administrative issues which throws new light on arguments about the Australian welfare state, its past and its future. "Peter Beilharz teaches social theory at La Trobe University. Mark Considine teaches policy and administration at the University of Melbourne. Rob Watts is a social historian who is currently Dean of Community Services and Policy Studies at Phillip Institute of Technology.".

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