Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Throughout Western society, however, there is a tendency for civil society to
break down, because of the very strength of social provision by the state. For
Fukuyama, again, this is the result of 200 years of social engineering, since the
time of the French Revolution, and the welfare system is counterproductive to
the wellbeing of the people. This occurs, not just at the social level, but also
through its effects on firms and transactions at the level of the economy. It is, of
course, false to ascribe the breakdown of social structures entirely to state
intervention. Migration from village communities to cities, and the technology of
modern living, must have important effects in the same direction. But it is
notable that some countries appear to have been able to maintain strong civil
society while undergoing urbanization and industrialization.
This whole field has been left aside by geographers. There are no geographies
of the degree or intensity of social interaction or strength of civil society. It is
likely, however, that this will be an important field for the future, because there
are obvious and important differences between regions and between nations in the
kind and strength of the institutions at the intermediate level.
Society as a productive force
From the previous discussion it is evident that there are great irregularities in the
way welfare provision is distributed and actually taken up. Although most people
would agree on the desirability of social provision, it has proved exceedingly
difficult, even in advanced industrial countries, to make public provision in an
equitable fashion. In addition, the welfare system in Europe would seem to have
created a dependent group or underclass, while social cohesion and civil society
has deteriorated, in part due to the rise of the welfare state. If we move from
actual processes of social change to policies, it is uncertain what can be done to
support civil society, and one inference may be that the state needs simply to
reduce its intervention. There is one broad area where intervention can be
significant, however; this is in the field of improving human capital, of
producing a society able to work in new fields and with useful skills.
Rather than social justice, the emphasis moves to improving the human
resource for production. Perhaps the most central elements in this provision are
education, training and retraining. If we consider the human element in
production in terms of people with skills, not as a homogeneous labour force as
did both the classical economists and Marx, then it is possible to conceive of
human resources that are created, improved or destroyed over time.
This takes the viewpoint entirely away from the moral arguments for welfare,
commonly adopted to support the welfare state within a Christian culture, in
which the idea of equality is dominant. From what may be called a supply-side
view, good provision of education at all levels is necessary simply to raise
productivity, alongside provision of other services such as housing or medicine
in cases where the market fails to provide, in order to sustain an active and
satisfied workforce.
