The Rule of Law and the Welfare State: Toward a New Synthesis
Author(s)
Scheuerman, Bill
Abstract
Classical formal law is both compatible with the modern welfare state and essential to proper democratic functioning. Law in modern capitalist welfare states has begun to assume a uniformly amorphous nature that permits excessive judicial and bureaucratic discretion. Such deformalized law both reflects and perpetuates the inequalities that a welfare state seeks to eradicate. In attacking an unsatisfying economic and social status quo, it may be possible to reestablish formal law as well.
