Wednesday 27 May 2009

Following my Leader

My wonderful ex-boss Matthew Taylor is often used and abused by the media as an 'ex spin-doctor'. His Blog reveals far more depth and substance.

Commenting on a recent RSA seminar, Matthew describes a contribution from the Director of the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy, Professor Anton Hemerijck. 

In presenting the core arguments of his forthcoming book on the welfare state in Europe after the financial crisis, Hmerijck gabe five dimensions of welfare state recalibration:

• Functional: what should the welfare state do?
• Normative: what are the duties and values underpinning the welfare state?
• Distributive: who gets what?
• Institutional: how is the welfare state organised?
• Referential: who do we compare ourselves with?

Take out the word 'welfare', and these are really useful dimensions for thinking about the state more generally. Reapply them to the arts, and we could have the start of a helpful new framework.

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