The collectivist view of the government providing welfare and health care for the people of the UK is a traditional left-wing Labour ideology. However the changing nature of society has seen a reduction in government intervention to a more individualist approach.
The collectivists believe that the Government should provide for people who are in poverty or cannot work themselves, and they also believe that they should be responsible and provide health care for the nation. The idea of collectivism is to reduce inequalities and the gap between the rich and poor, by taking money, through taxes,to help those who are in poverty or in need. It could be argued that in recent years everyone is becoming more affluent and prosperous although the gap between rich and poor is widening. This is causing a major problem for the Government to keep this under control. The black report in the 1980’s showed there was a link between some ones wealth and this affected their health. The growth of inequalities could be a major problem as it is proven that the NHS alone cannot tackle health issues, but is down to external factors like social class, income, education, housing which are dramatically effecting peoples health although they are almost impossible to get out the poverty trap. It could be argued that because of the extent of such social problems, the government should be responsible for providing welfare.
On the other hand, the collectivist view that the Government is responsible for health care and welfare provision is seen as unfair by the individualist as it would result in high taxation. Individualists believe that it is personal choice in life that if someone wants to smoke and drink it’s their problem and shouldn’t be the taxpayer’s problem. Once in the poverty trap for some people it is difficult to get out and things only get worse as they are more likely to commit crime, be socially excluded, drink, smoke and be out of work, then the Government sometimes has to pick up the pieces, the collectivist governments wish to tackle these social problems by providing money, housing, education and the essentials to give a fair start in life. Some people believe this only creates a dependency culture and a ‘Nanny state’. Therefore this shows that the some believe that the individual should be responsible for their own welfare.
Despite this, it could be argued that some still believe that the government should have some intervention. When Labour became ‘new Labour’ they came up with the ‘Third Way’. New Labour attempted to blend individual responsibility with collective support as part of a “third way” approach to welfare. This meant that they wanted to create a society that was no longer welfare dependent but encouraged people to ‘put their hand up, not hand out’. They had some individualist polices such as the Public Private Partnership to help governments fund schools, this would have been unlikely under ‘old’ Labour. This highlights that the ‘third way approach’ believes that both the individual and government should provide welfare,
It can be argued that the collectivist approach can create a dependency culture and is expensive for taxpayers. This view is echoed by David Cameron and the Conservatives. Prior to being elected he spoke of how Britain was ‘broken’ due to long term unemployment and crime. He believes it is down to the individual to take responsibility. In addition he believes that the benefit system is creating a dependency culture. Due to this the government has been increasing means testing and making it a lot tougher to claim, David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ aims to ‘heal’ Britain by encouraging individuals and groups to take over duties previously carried out by the state. These groups can run housing projects, schools, youth groups and cultural organisations. This shows that the current government believe in trying to reduce government intervention and place more emphasis on the individual.
In conclusion, the collectivist view that the government should be responsible for the health care and welfare provision of the nation could be outdated as ‘the third way’ and ‘Big Society’ are the new approaches. There is a lot of pros and cons about collectivism, however in society we do a have a lot of problems and some say that the welfare state was created to solve these problems.