"Health and welfare provision should be the responsibility of the government. Discuss." (20 marks) The details and specifics of Britain's health and welfare system is a complex issue with a vast array of different ideologies and possible solutions. The two most antithetical viewpoints on the way a health and welfare system should be are known as the collectivist and individualist point of view. Those who share a collectivist view, associated with a left-wing political stance, believe that the health and welfare of the UK is fully the government's responsibility, and that the government is obligated to help it's citizen's with health problems, even if they're self inflicted (ie, though smoking, drinking, poor diet) as they argue that these …show more content…
Individualists believe that a person's health and welfare is their own responsibility and that should the government begin intervening in British people's lives, that they will become reliant on the government and this would create what they call a "nanny state". A nanny state is another term for dependency culture - a part of society which is becoming more prominent with shows like "Benefits Street" depicting many British citizen's day-to-day reality. Individualists also argue that their ideas would create low taxes and less public spending, freeing up more of the government's budget to spend on things like education and housing. They believe that many British people have become completely reliant on things like job seeker's allowance, and this has made them lazy. They do not want to seek employment because the government's hand outs make their lives comfortable enough without having to work. The individualist ideology is strongly associated with Margaret Thatcher, who believed that collectivism was the cause of the economic and political hiatus in Britain. She wanted to privatise things like the NHS in order to cut taxes, because the NHS took a massive toll on government's funding. She also introduced "Right to Buy", which allowed tenants to buy their desired house for a heavily discounted price and pay it back at a later date or over time. About 1.5 million homes in the UK have been sold in this …show more content…
In 1997, when Tony Blair became the Prime Minister, The Labour Party took over a majority of parliament, with more women and ethnic minorities than ever before, to form what was known as the “New Labour”. Blair introduced the Third Way, a political view which synthesised the best elements of right and left wing politics - it merged collectivism and individualism, to create a political ideology which was neither of the two. The Third Way encouraged self help, yet still had collectivist values. It was influenced by American sociologist Charles Murray. Tony Blair believed that there should be benefit systems in place as a safety net for those truly in need, yet he also said that financial aid should be "hand up, not hand out", meaning they should be taken only when necessary and the system should never be abused. Blair put means testing in place, which meant people had to fit a certain criteria to be able to recieve benefits and this lessened chances of people abusing the system. He also introduced "welfare to work" programs, which entail skill training, giving the unemployed a better chance of getting a job rather than them being reliant on government handouts which could result in them becoming lazy. As well as encouraging these, Blair and the Third Way still invested heavily in education, which was by default giving the working class better opportunities in life and