Philosophical Foundations of the Idea of Building a Welfare State in New Zealand

The paper examines the history of the welfare state construction in New Zealand and the philosophical foundations of the very idea of such a state. Similar ideas were noted to be articulated by utopian thinkers and proponents of liberalism, communism, and social democratic theories. Since the mid-nineteenth century the concept of a “social state” has been established in academic discourse and the practical realization of this state construction idea in New Zealand dates back to the 1880s. The welfare state is demonstrated to rest on the principles of justice, equality, and social welfare.” The construction of such a state was considered as an attempt at the conscious and purposeful creation of a unique social space within the framework of a particular country. Social space was defined as a socio-anthropological construct resulting from the human social structuring of space, which consists of a system of past and present social relations. It combines the mental and cultural, social and historical into a single whole of the objective and subjective. Social space is shown to include several dynamic functional-structural subsystems: physical, virtual and professional space, a system of internal relations, existing social groups and hierarchical structures, social processes occurring within and the semio-, concepto- and axiosphere. It has been concluded that the peculiarity of constructing social space as a new social reality of the country lies in the fact that, from a philosophical point of view, it is always a constructive transition of an idea, a cognitive model into the real ontology of physical objects and a system of relations and processes. Based on the analysis of digital data and ratings New Zealand is shown to be quite successful in building a welfare state.

EDN NAKIKP    

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