The United Kingdom and Human Rights - College of Social ...

104 Human Rights, Values and Choice
been suggested that this rewritten passage shows either the
increasing conservatism of age or Smith's response to the French
Revolution.
27 I have adopted the approach in W. K. Frankena, Ethics, (Prentice-
Hall, Eaglewood Cliffs, 2nd ed. 1973), pp. 81 et seq.
28 I have particularly drawn on R. M. Hare, "Justice and Equality" in
Justice and Economic Distribution, J. Arthur and W. H. Shaw ed., op.
cit., p. 116; Albert Weale "Issues of Value and Principle in Social
Policy," in Social Policy and Social Welfare, M. Loney, D. Boswell and
J. Clarke ed., Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1983), p. 104;
Vic George and Paul Wilding, Ideology and Social Welfare, (Routledge
& Kegan Paul, 1976), pp. 62 et seq.; and Rawls, A Theory of Justice, op.
cit..
29 See the letter by Frank Field M.P., and "Statistics and the Poverty of
Integrity" by Melanie Phillips in The Guardian, July 27, 1990. See also
Raymond Plant, "Trickle Down, Gushing Up," The Times, August 7,
1990, p. 10. Measurements of poverty and the effect of social security
changes up to September 1988 are comprehensively examined in A.
B. Atkinson ed., Poverty and Social Security, (Harvester Wheatsheaf,
1989).
30 Bernard de Mandeville (16707-1733), a Dutchman who settled in
England, put forward the cynical theory that the vices of individuals
are to the benefit of the public and that if things are left alone, they
will work out better than if you meddle. See his Fable of the Bees
(1723). The image of the capricious woman who wants a new gown
is used by Addison, Mandeville and Montesquieu, all quoted in
Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment, p. 465.
31 An excellent account both of the history and of the current position
is given in Michael Hill, Social Security Policy in Britain, (Edward
Elgar, 1990). A punchy, but accurate, picture is given in Ruth Lister,
The Exclusive Society: Citizenship and the Poor, (Child Poverty Action
Group, London, 1990).
32 They are lucidly described in Hill, supra, pp. 157-172.
33 Adam Smith made the point that although society gains from
education so do those who receive it: "The expence of the
institutions for education and religious instruction, is likewise, no
doubt, beneficial to the whole society, and may, therefore, without
injustice, be defrayed by the general contribution of the whole
society. This expence, however, might perhaps with equal propriety,
and even with some advantage, be defrayed altogether by those who
receive the immediate benefit of such education and instruction, or
by the voluntary contribution of those who think they have occasion
for either the one or the other." Wealth of Nations, E. Cannan,
ed.,(University of Chicago Press, 1976), p. 340.