Bill Jordan is Reader in Social Studies at Exeter University and Professor in Social Policy at Huddersfield University. He has written extensively in politics and social policy, including most recently A Theory of Poverty and Social Exclusion (1996).

Introduction
Social Justice in a Global Context
The Labour Market as the Key to Social Justice
Social Justice
Rights, Equality, Need
The Scope for Self-Responsibility and Private Provision
An Alternative Programme
Conclusions
Freedom and Solidarity in a Global Economy

This critical and highly topical introduction to the current debates and politics surrounding welfare reform in the United Kingdom and the United States explains the origins and main tenets of the Blair-Clinton orthodoxy.

Central to the book is an examination of this orthodoxy's appeal to the concept of social justice. Bill Jordan demonstrates how values derived from the family and voluntary associations are in danger of running counter to the more fundamental principles of liberal democracy and the requirements of transnational economic exchange. He links the new politics of welfare to liberal and communitarian theories of citizenship and social justice, and assesses the broader prospects for European social policy in the struggle over economic and political integration.

`For more than a decade, Bill Jordan has been one of our most thoughtful and independent thinkers on the future of welfare. Anyone who wants to know more about what is happening to global welfare and why and how it should be changed should read this book' - Chris Pierson, Department of Politics, University of Nottingham