Grounding Security: Family, Insurance and the State

Description

This book examines some of the mechanisms which are currently conceived as affording individual security. The idea of security includes emotional and financial components. These interconnect so that such common concepts as 'trust' in someone and 'care taking' include both ideas of emotional and financial support. State policies on security rest on perceptions of two other institutions, the family and insurance, both of which are subject to change. At one time the extended family was seen as a major security-providing institution, but the contemporary nuclear family is more fragile. The concept of insurance originally entailed ideas of community and mutual aid; however, the institution has developed, in its modern private form, as a profit-driven entity. This book addresses various uses of state power in providing security for individuals, and outlines different ways in which this can be done. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Pillars of Security Security Overview Frans Hals The Regents and Regentesses of the Almshouse Pillars: Which Ones? 2 Security through the Family Family and Property The Impact of Contract Law The Changing Shape of the Family Marriage Contracts: Illustrations from Islamic Law 3 Security through Insurance Job: A World without Insurance What is Insurance? Insurance as a Contract of Community Dystopian Aspects of Insurance A Complex Good The Limits of Insurance 4 Security through the State The Background Legal Regime The New Deal Rubinow on the New Deal and the Role of Private Organizations Some Religious Argument Some Economic Argument 5 Security and Individualism Reinvention and Membership The Pillars and Utopia Conclusion Index