Social democracy and development : the humanitarian and utilitarian aspects of workers' rights and participation

Abstract

In the post-colonial period of the emerging new Nations, and the first decades of the post WWII period in the developed countries of Europe and North America, national Governments concentrated their efforts in reconstruction and development with considerable emphasis on social protection and the improvement of working conditions. Their efforts and achievements, went some considerable way in meeting peoples' basic needs and aspirations for social justice. However, the economic crises of the late 1970's and 1980's which brought about the acute trade competition for survival, affected adversely social protection trends. It was a period of antisocial welfare rhetoric and action precipitated by the neo-liberal or neoconservative philosophy of Governments and business managements, whose objectives - for the sake of questionable economies and efficiency - was the near-destruction of the Welfare State and the encroaching of established workers' rights. 1 In the final analysis though, those kinds of policies created many more problems than some of the temporary economic problems they may have helped to solve, and eventually were condemned at varying degrees by the electorate in Western Europe, Canada and Japan because those policies had contributed to increased unemployment, poverty, crime and overall social deterioration.