What is the role of social protection? A response to Yeatman.(response to article in this issue, p. 69)(Brief Article)

Yeatman contends that her concept of the new contractualism does not reject social protection. Yet it is extremely difficult to witness the role of social protection within what she argues is a `post-protectionist', `post-liberal' conception of the status of the individual. The new contractualism, which forms part of Yeatman's broader vision for the politics of individuality, involves a reconfiguration of the individual as the `subject of human rights' rather than as the `subject of modern citizenship' (Yeatman, 2000). This individual exists and acts within the environment of `equal opportunity liberalism' and not the `patrimonial-collectivist traditions of state-sponsored protection' …