Beyond the New Paternalism: Basic Security as Equality - Hardcover

The century of labouring man has come to an end, but governments continue to link social entitlements to the performance of labour and to the figure of labouring man, the 'bread winner'. This book argues that the era of market regulation that accompanied this model has ended, to be replaced by a globalized system of fiscal control, with all its inequalities and insecurities. This shift has seen the ironic move from the struggle for the right to labour, to governments preaching that everyone has a duty to labour. The author explores the relationship between labour, security and control, and proposes a new model for a "good society, based on work" and not labour, in which basic income security is recognised as a right for all.

Guy Standing is director of the Socio-Economic Programme of the International Labour Organisation. He directed the ILO's technical programme in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s and was an advisor to the South African government in 1995-96. He has written extensively on labour market and social policy issues.