Making Welfare for Future Generations

This article attempts to construct a new temporal framework for social policy. It draws upon a theory of intergenerational justice that has been elaborated by the author elsewhere and uses that theory to elaborate upon the principles of sustainable justice. The article addresses some of the diffcult philosophical dilemmas that those principles generate and argues that reconciling the interests of present and future generations of the least well-off requires the design of a new property regime. An ecosocial regime is defned and discussed, especially in terms of substitutable goods. The article concludes by debating the prescriptive implications of the above for social policy and future welfare reform.