In The Name of Liberalism Illiberal Social Policy in the USA and Britain [Hardcover]

This book investigates examples of social policy in Britain and the United States that conflict with liberal democratic ideals. It examines the use of eugenic arguments in the 1920s and 1930s, the use of work camps in the 1930s, and the introduction of work-for-welfare programs since the 1980s. The author argues that government accommodation of illiberal policies are a paradox of a liberal democratic framework.

PART 1. POLITICS, POLICY MAKING AND IDEAS.
1. Liberalism and Illiberal Social Policy
2. Liberal Democracy and Policy-Making: Knowledge and the Formation of Social Policy
PART 2. LIBERAL UNREASON
3. Cutting off the Worse: Voluntary Sterilisation in Britain in the 1930s
4. The Gravest Menace?: Eugenics and American Immigration Policy
PART 3. LIBERAL AMELIORATION AND COLLECTIVISM
5. Reconditioning the Unemployed: the Labour Camps in Britain
6. This Kind of Work Must Go On: The US Civilian Conservation Corps
PART 4. THE LIBERAL COERCIVE CONTRACT
7. Aroused Like One From Sleep: From New Poor Law to Workfare in Britain
8. A Second Chance, Not a Way of Life: Welfare as Workfare in the US
PART 5. COONCLUSION
9. The Future of Social Citizenship

Desmond King is a Professor of Politics and a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford.