@ Stegerwald
Stegerwald wrote:So the burden of proof rests on you, and you must substantiate this claim.
Let me make a shot at it. Although the ideology of the new radical centre is global, her most prominent leaders are Clinton, Blair and Schröder. They advocate the equality of
chances, not of results. Everybody must get the opportunity to develop his talents. Besides, the radical centre guarantees a humane existence for all. However, this personal right is based on
reciprocity, and therefore it is conditional. The positive rights contain a clause. Everybody has the obligation to maximize his
productivity.
Consequentially the radical centre aims to activate people, who lay claim to social security. Any productive activity is better than passive consumption, both for society and the individual himself. There is a merit in earning ones own living. This is sometimes called
workfare. The economic policy as a whole can be labeled
flexicurity. The emphasis on productivity also means that demand side policies are rejected, and replaced by supply side policies. The state is restrained with respect to economic interventions. In particular he does not create jobs by himself.
Still the state maintains a fairly large budget, but this is spent on empowering facilities such as child care, parent leave, and adult education. These are investments in human and social capital.
Thus the radical centre propagates a conditional personal autonomy, and is compatible with liberalism. In fact some believe that it is the most
authentic variety of liberalism. However, there is a caveat. It is still unclear if workfare and state-provided activation do yield satisfactory results. They will definitely change the targeted people, but the efficiency of this change remains yet to be seen. To be honest, I can not answer this vital question.
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