Is the welfare state justified?

Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-309) and index.

Introduction -- Justification in political philosophy -- Internal versus external arguments -- Clarifying the institutional alternatives -- Coming attractions -- Central perspectives in political philosophy -- Justice, equality, and fairness -- Basic rights, liberty and well-being -- Community and solidarity -- Public justification and epistemic accessibility -- Health insurance, part I -- The topic's importance -- The institutional alternatives -- Egalitarianism and NHI -- Risks and choices : egalitarian reasons for MHI -- Rationing, visibility, and egalitarian outcomes : why market allocation is better -- Why the priority view agrees with the egalitarian support of MHI -- Health insurance, part II -- Basic rights and the right to health care -- The content of the right -- The grounds of the right to health care -- Health care and communitarianism -- Public justification, information, and rationing -- Conclusion : the reasons for MHI's superiority -- Old-age or retirement pensions -- The institutional alternatives -- Egalitarianism, fairness, and retirement pensions -- Positive rights and security -- Community, solidarity, and pension systems -- Public justification, epistemic accessibility, and the superiority of private pension -- Conclusion -- Welfare or means-tested benefits, part I -- Introduction -- Different kinds of state welfare -- Nongovernmental aid -- Egalitarianism and welfare-state redistribution -- Why prioritarianism agrees with egalitarianism about welfare policy -- Will private charity be enough? -- Welfare or means-tested benefits, part II -- The right to welfare -- Communitarianism and welfare -- Public justification, epistemic accessibility, and welfare -- Conclusion : the uncertain choice between state and private conditional aid -- Conclusion -- Introduction -- The problems with SS and the transition problem -- The Cato plan -- The Brookings plan -- Comparing the two plans -- Where things stand.