ABSTRACT
Welfare state politics are not political, not fundamentally or essentially. They begin in a basic orientation to the world—a way of conceiving man and the world and the relations between them. Ideas form there of the good and bad, the right and wrong; of how one ought to act and what others ought to do and refrain from doing so that one can live a good life, and the social structure that requires. Finally come the welfare state politics, a response to two questions: what do we owe one another, not in our various social roles, but as persons? how should we deal with people who have things we want?
