This paper looks critically at a central notion of the Marxist analysis of social policy – the contradictions of welfare. Two main variants of the argument are identified: the ‘paradox’ and ‘opposite effect’ contradictions respectively. Serious doubts are raised about the viability of a Marxist analysis of social policy which relies on the concept of the contradictions of the welfare state.

This paper investigates two issues of equity in the receipt of the home help service, one about territorial justice, the other about sex discrimination. It uses GHS data for 1980. An argument is developed about the efficiency with which services are targeted on persons who by normative criteria would appear to have most need of them. Efficiency is of two types: horizontal efficiency, the proportion of persons judged in need who receive services; and vertical efficiency, the proportion of services allocated to persons judged in need. The findings are that there is evidence of inequity both between different areas and between the sexes. Metropolitan areas are advantaged compared with rural areas, and this cannot be explained by differences in social support nor by the availability of other domiciliary services. Among the elderly living alone, neither sex is advantaged, but in elderly married couple households the home help service is more frequently provided in the case of a husband caring for a disabled wife than in the case of a wife caring for a disabled husband.

In 1979 the House of Commons Select Committee system was reformed with a view to strengthening the powers of the Legislature over the Executive. The Social Services Committee is one of fourteen new Select Committees and has the responsibility to scrutinize the performance of the DHSS, to evaluate policies which are relevant to the Department and to publish the results of its investigatory enquiries. Thus, by reviewing policies and by making recommendations for reform, the Social Services Committee has the potential to play a significant role in the development of existing policies as well as in determining the shape of future ones. This article begins by providing a brief account of the reformed Select Committee structure in order to set in context the functions and performance of the Social Services Committee. It then examines the role and contributions of members, the chairman and the specialist advisers before proceeding to look at some of the Committee's activities. The article concludes by considering the impact of the Social Services Committee upon current DHSS policies and assessing its contribution to the wider policy making environment.

In social policy research the gender dimension has been relatively neglected in Britain. The attempt to selectively reduce public spending is examined with reference to its objective impact on men and women using official statistics and specialist reports. In addition, on the basis of a large-scale interview survey the subjective impact of and political reactions to the cuts are analysed by gender. The main findings are that this current social policy negatively affects women as both public sector workers and consumers more than men. Political reactions to the cuts were extensive but unrelated to gender per se. However, when one controls for economic activity and related variables, gender differences in terms of both political attitudes and behaviour were insignificant compared to the contrast between the economically active and inactive. The main social policy implication is that the restructuring of the welfare state hits women first and foremost.

President Ronald Reagan brought a new circus to town in 1981. He billed it as offering never-before-seen, awe-inspiring acts of skill and daring, with demand-side management by ‘rational expectations monetarists’ and supply-side engineering by ‘new economists’, the performers in the centre ring would tame inflation and usher in permanent growth. Others would increase defence expenditures while cutting taxes and balancing the budget all at one and the same time without hurting the ‘truly needy’ or weakening the legitimate ‘safety nets’ of the ‘merely seedy’. The grand finale would bring forth the problem-saving capacities of states and localities as well as private philanthropies, all of which had been ‘crowded out’, according to Reagan, by an overspending, overtaxing, over-regulating, problem-causing federal government, which had been the featured performer in previous, not very successful ‘great shows’ in Washington.