Sociologies (Feb 2021)
Lecture néo-républicaine du non-recours aux droits sociaux
Abstract
Non take-up of social rights affects the effectiveness of social policies and the equity of socio-fiscal redistribution systems. While the forthcoming social policy reforms aim in France to solve the problem of non-recourse, this article highlights the political dimension of the phenomenon. Philip Pettit's neo-republican political theory serves as a guideline for a review of Philippe Warin's work on non take-up by non-demand. It provides a critical look at the socio-economic and socio-political theories that currently prevail on the subject. The contribution of this work is manifest on several levels. It allows, first, to redefine the categories of non take-up by disinterest and value conflict, and enriches the analytical framework by taking into account phenomena of take-up by strategic deference at the same level as the phenomena of non take-up. More fundamentally, this work places the analysis of non take-up in both the history of modern sociality and the republican conceptualization of freedom as non-domination. Moreover, this exercise in applying neo-republicanism to the question of non take-up directs the author towards a neo-republican theory of justice and law able to offer a general framework for critical analysis of social policies.
