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help with the calculation, and lawyers with the appeal. But the initiative for making use of the services of economists and lawyers must be supplied by the poor and the disadvantaged who are the plaintiffs before the court cf compensatory justice. Sociologists, political scientists, and public officials can help the poor and the disadvantaged by explaining to them the nature of the socio-economic system in which they are accumulating substantial claims year after year.1 At the same time, as the average income of society grows, the ability of the general public to give out of a sheer good will also grows, even if love and compassion still continue to account for only a small fraction of human behaviour. Religious and para- religious organisations continue their activities some of which channel resources to the ΡΟΟΣ a nd the disadvantaged. Variously inspired "do-gooders" arise and make contributions of many forms toward making life at the depth of society more livable. These "private transfers" of resources may reach sections of the poor and disadvantaged population that a movement for compensatory justice may fail to reach and therefore become useful components of society's overall efforts for raising its aggregate economic welfare.2

Conclusion

of

This article is an exploration in the relevance of economics to the discussion social security. If a system of thought has emerged from this exploration, it may be characterised as the use of welfare economics in combination with development economics with generous help from micro-economics. Conventional macro-economics and its several variants with emphasis on economic growth are found either useless or misleading to an intelligent discussion of social security. An obvious point that is often completely overlooked by economic analysts is that in a world fraught with risks and uncertainties, the desire to insure oneself against them is as real as the desire for food and shelter. From this, a theory of demand for insurance is only a short distance. The risks and uncertainties relevant tc social security are cogently categorised as "contingencies" in the literature. Micro-economics, rendered appropriately realistic, can help in deriving a "social demand" for security against these specified contingencies. "Social security technology" has evolved over the years in response to this demand. Why the State has been involved in the provision of social security can be explained in terms of "compensatory justice" which welfare economics proposes as a test of net gains in society's aggregate economic welfare in the wake of changes introduced into the status quc. When the State is the "change agent", it must meet the test of "compensatory justice". Economic development represents a set of far-reaching changes in the socic-economic conditions and heightens those "contingencies" that are sources cf life's insecurity, while weakening the traditional techniques of dealing with them. The State, which promotes economic development, can hardly remain indifferent to the problems of security against these "contingencies",

This basic system of thought proves fairly robust when used to interpret quantitative aspects of social security technology cost and benefit of social security in relation to economic growth, national income, consumption, saving, and capital formation. The se are the topics over which conventional macro-economics claims prerogatives. But when social security is related to these topics, macro- economics only displays its lack of perspective and realism in relation to the order and direction of causations in socio-economic changes. This article also discusses income distribution and redistribution with the help of the thought system it has developed. Conventional arguments in this area have overestimated the role of social security in promoting an equalisation of income distribution. The analytical framework of this paper releases social security from this role with honour. Finally, "compensatory justice" is reinterpreted to legitimise the claims of the poor and the disadvantaged on the opportunities, wealth and income of society.

1 HOW relevant political analysis is to the issue mentioned here is eloquently demonstrated by Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare (New York: Random House, 1971).

give harm.

2 Love and compassion sometimes have unintended deleterious effects on those who

as well as

those who receive. "Do-gooders" are also often accused of doing But since noble sentiments are just as real as ignoble ones (hate, arrogance, indifference, etc.), they can be very useful resources for improving the quality of life and society if properly stimulated and activated. See, for example, Pitrim A. Sorokin, ed., Forms and Techniques of

of Altruistic and Spiritual Growth: (Boston, Mass.: The Beacon Press, 1954).

Symposium

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