Global Labour Flexibility

What models of distributive justice can the twenty-first century promote to challenge the spread of insecurity, inequality and social fragmentation? The twentieth century has been the century of the labouring man, which began with a clamour for the rights of labour, moved into an era promoting the right to labour and ended with calls for the duty to labour. The century was dominated by competition between two labourist models of society - state socialism and welfare state capitalism - which reached their peak in the 1970s, and which promoted forms of labour security. Since the 1970s, globalization, flexible labour markets and supply-side economics have increased insecurity and inequalities. After a period dominated by libertarianism, politicians and social thinkers must now find ways of promoting distributive justice, based on basic security and new forms of voice representation and regulation. Dismissing the approach of the 'new paternalists', this book presents a vision combining security of income and representation without moralistic state control, in which the right to occupational security is given pride of place.