"Drawing on a wide-ranging literature from across the social sciences, Spicker develops his own model for understanding the basis of welfare in society. Through a series of propositions, Spicker develops a theory based on the idea of people as social actors with social rights and moral obligations, and welfare as obtained and maintained through social action in response to people's needs. He argues that the provision of welfare reflects the values of the society in which it takes place, but that welfare implies some level of redistribution. Spicker goes on to consider the role of the state in the provision of welfare, both at the level of the individual and of society, as well as between states."
