Growth, redistribution, and welfare: Toward social investment

Contemporary approaches to social welfare are based on the idea that the resources generated by economic growth should be redistributed to fund social programs. Although this approach has dominated social policy since the 1950s it has been undermined by the argument that redistributive social welfare expends scarce resources on unproductive social services, maintains needy people in dependency, and stifles economic growth. Faced with need for new ideas that will legitimate social welfare, social development offers an alternative perspective on redistribution that emphasizes resource allocations to social programs that are productivist and investment oriented and that enhance economic participation and make a positive contribution to development. Elaborating this argument, this article outlines strategies for implementing developmental social programs.