Medicalization of the Self

Running head: MEDICALIZATION OF THE SELF
MEDICALIZATION OF THE SELF
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1MEDICALIZATION OF THE SELF
Question 1: Why, since the late 1970s, has there been a retraction in state welfare, and
what impact has this had upon the most needy (the sick, the poor) within society?
Introduction
This essay will look to interpret the importance of the welfare state and the reason for its
decline in the United Kingdom after the 1970s. The growth of neoliberals and the ways the
concept of the welfare state began to wither away will be discussed in this paper. The growth and
fall of the welfare state has been one of the most impactful things in the political history of the
United Kingdom.
The welfare of state or the state welfare is a very well known and popular form of
discussion in terms of the political science. In this system, the primary role of the government is
to ensure that they should protect the well being of the common people and give them the means
to live happily in this world (Offe 2018). Both the social and economic well being of the citizens
should always be taken care of by the states at the first hand. Some of the ways this welfare of
the state could be kept are to give equal opportunities to everyone in the state, make sure that the
wealth is equally distributed among the people. The government officials should always make a
step towards ensuring a better living standard for all the people in the society. United Kingdom
has also been regarded as one of the welfare states that has taken care of the needs and desires of
the common people of the country. The biopolitics and the technologies of the self and
domination are indeed the most crucial aspects of the welfare state and its retraction. Due to the
global recession, the levels of poverty had increased to a huge amount. This is why it had been a
huge problem for the people. They did not get all the facilities in the country that they deserved.
They were almost deprived of several opportunities. This is why the overall condition of the

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country and their economic status had worsened completely. This led to the ill health of the
people and they did not have the means to go through the proper treatment.
The provisions of being a welfare state existed in Britain before the World War II. The
responsibility of the state was to support the sick people of the country and ensure everybody
should be taken care of (Offe 2018). More importantly, the well being of the sick and poor
people were the biggest concerns in this scenario. After the end of the World War, United
Kingdom provided a very crucial welfare system for its citizens where the poor and sick people
were taken care of evidently (Thane 2016).
The concept of the welfare state seems to be in a huge jeopardy in the current times
because of the evolution of the industry. The Government of the states provided the necessary
framework by which the state took all the responsibility to look after the scenario of providing
employment and medical opportunities to the common people. The revolution in the industry
worked as a transformational attribute in the history of Britain in a large manner. The
government was supposed to provide all the crucial things to the common people of the state and
provide equal opportunities in eduation, health, employment and all other sections.
On the other hand, the retraction of the welfare state has been seen in a big manner in the
countries. There are several causes for it but the main concern is the poor and sick people would
be largely be harmed (Thane 2016). The concept of the welfare state seems to be under threat for
a big reason in the current times. These reasons should be curbed properly to find a new way of
getting into the matter and make some positive contribution to raise hope for these poor, sick and
helpless people (Robson 2018). Historically, the welfare state had been a very successful one in
Britain but after the middle of the 1970s, this concept was under major threats.

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The biggest cause that has posed this threat was no doubt the economic one. The rise of
the oil prices aggravated this situation. The war between Arab and Israel in the year 1973 made
this situation much worse. Due to this war and problems over the rising oil prices had increased
the annual rate of inflation (Robson 2018). This rate of inflation had reached around 27% in the
year 1975. On the other hand, the economic growth of the country had been going down as well.
The slow growth of GDP and perhaps its fall had led many people out of their works. So, it was a
very tough situation indeed.
The number of people reached around 1.5 million in the year 1976 who were thrown out
of their employment opportunities. The government was not able to meet the rising demands of
the welfare state because it could not cater to the rising revenue of the country (Goodin and Le
Grand 2018). In these circumstances, the Heath and Wilson governments had made some plans
that had to cut down the public expenditure. This could result in many problems for the poor
people of the country. In all the programs for the public expenditures, cash limits had been
reduced. The commitment made after the World War for the full ‘employment’ could not be met
in these circumstances. These shocks in the economy were short term but these risks had been
problematic in many cases as well (Black and Pemberton 2017). The thoughts of the critics were
shaped in a way that the problems of the welfare state could not be resolved anymore.
Some questions had even been raised on the effectiveness and legitimacy of the welfare
state in Britain (Goodin and Le Grand 2018). The discontent among the people was beginning to
grow and the Labor Government had been brought down very badly. People were not at all
satisfied with the policies that were taken for the common people to thrive. Many questions had
been dormant in the minds of common people and these questions began to rise one after another
(Tomlinson 2016). However, the impact of this retraction of the welfare state was not good at all.