Solidarity in the legal frames Cover Image

Solidarity in the legal frames
Solidarity in the legal frames

Author(s): Aleksandra Głos
Subject(s): Philosophy, Ethics / Practical Philosophy
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: solidarity; health care; responsibility; welfare state; legal framing; decent care; R. Ter Meulen; A. Margalit; H. Frankfurt

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of solidarity and its proper position in the legal frames, with particular focus on health care. Solidarity is often identified with welfare arrangements and social guarantees. In this institutional version, it tends to humiliate citizens and restrict their entrepreneurship. Moreover, administrative solidarity is unable to recognize the actual needs of the most vulnerable members of society, which should be one of its primary concerns. Solidarity, in its original meaning, understood as supportive cooperation of fellow citizens, links their rights and freedoms with mutual duties and responsibilities. Hence, an alternative framework for solidarity should be provided. This framework, committed to the idea of decency, introduces the distinction between the minimum and maximum content of solidarity enforceable by legal means, which should be translated into certain health care practices.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 44
  • Page Range: 204-222
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: English