Giddens Positive Social Welfare Thought

After observing the shortcomings of the traditional welfare state,Giddens proposes the positive social welfare thought. The thought keeps up with thetrend of the times. It is paied widely attention by all of us. This article will take fiveparts to study Gidden’s positive social welfare thought.The first part introduced the significance of this research，the presentresearch situation of Giddens’s positive social welfare thought, and the key anddifficult points of this research.The second part elaborated the evolution of the western social welfarethought and the production of the positive social welfare thought. After the secondworld war，with the development of Capitalism，the western welfare thought roughlyhas experienced Democratic socialist to the new liberalism, again to the third waytheory. Giddens’s positive social welfare thought is the representative of welfare ofthe third way.The third part specifically elaborated the content of Giddens’s positivesocial welfare thought. On the basis of criticism which Giddens takes for thetraditional welfare thought, he puts forward actively positive social welfarethought——takes “no rights without responsibilities” as the principle, to change thenegative welfare to positive welfare, and the traditional welfare state to the socialinvestment state.The fourth part evaluated Giddenss positive social welfare thought. Thethought provide a new direction for western countries to reform welfare system andhas obtained certain achievement. But, due to the incomplete Giddens’s thoughtsystem, there are some shortcomings in the thought.The fifth part expounds enlightenment of the Giddens’s positive socialwelfare thought to our country. During our construction of social security, we have torecognize our national conditions, to establish a reasonable social security system.We also have to insist on the unity of the rights and obligations, realize thegovernment, enterprises, and individual responsibility risk-sharing, and need to strengthen human resources investment.