Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Unemployment and civic responsibility in Australia: towards a new social contract

1999; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 19; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/026101839901900205

1461-703X

Lorraine Kerr, Harry Savelsberg,

Labor Movements and Unions

The Coalition party's victory at the 1996 Australian federal election has inaugurated a radical shift in social policy. A ‘new deal’ regarding social welfare entitlements is emerging, especially regarding recipient obligations. This article argues that policy shifts, such as the newly implemented volunteer option for the unemployed, reflects free market ideology and establishes a new social contractual relationship between recipients of social security, the state and the ‘community’. This policy orientation may be regarded as the next step in dismantling the statist/labourist welfare tradition in Australia and the legitimation of a new social contract, heralding a new era in which ‘working’ for one's welfare benefits becomes a requirement rather than an option.