Citizenship as a Form of Anticipatory Obedience? Implications of Preventive Social Policy in Germany

As a concept, citizenship could be defined as an assemblage of rights that are granted to members of a certain entity. According to Marshall (1950/1964) citizens enjoy civil (e.g. protection from harm), political (e.g. participation in decision-making) and social (e.g. welfare entitlements) rights. The flipside of citizenship rights are, often implicit, moral duties and responsibilities. Hence, good citizen ought to adopt a set of civic values such as public spirit, solidarity and modesty. However, the actual meaning of citizenship is necessarily contingent: It widely differs across policy frameworks, contexts and time. This paper seeks to scrutinize citizenship implications in the field of social policy in Germany (Bode 2013). In particular, I will focus on preventive social policy, an evolving policy paradigm that pursues early and efficient investments in proactive measures and social programs (e.g. those that are targeted on young adults’ labour market integration). Therewith, preventive social policy marks a significant difference to curative social policies (e.g. unemployment benefits and health care) but also, with regard to its underlying policy assumptions and the way welfare users are addressed, to consumer-driven welfare markets. From a citizenship perspective, Germany’s recent attempts to establish preventive social policies seek to strengthen social participation and equal opportunities for citizens with a special emphasis on disadvantaged groups (e.g. lone parents or migrants). Furthermore, the prevention of social ills that do not yet exist is seen as a return on investments for future generations. While at first glance prevention policies (Gough 2013) seem fairly uncontroversial – almost everybody agrees to the concept of prevention (Freeman 1992) – difficulties occur by a more detailed examination. Foremost, this concerns the question how social citizenship will be defined in theoretical and empirical terms under the new paradigm. As argued, preventive social policy addresses citizens primarily as active co-producers of their future welfare and wellbeing. Prevention becomes a future-oriented permanent task that requires constant commitment of responsible citizens. Consequently, social entitlements are increasingly attached to obligations to cooperate, i.e. engage in life-long learning and pursuing a healthy lifestyle. Perceived this way, active citizenship does not enhance self-government and autonomy, as they are provided by forms of choice and voice, but requires anticipatory action – that may turn into obedience – due to the imminent danger of future social deprivation. The paper starts by briefly recapitulating the concept of social citizenship and its meaning in the German welfare state as it has been evolved over time (1). In a second step, the recent shift towards a preventive social policy and its guiding rationales will be reflected (2). Against this backdrop, citizenship implications in two subfields of preventive social policy will be analyzed in detail: proactive employment and health promotion policies (3). By identifying coproduction and risk management as the key citizenship logics, the discussion part critically examines how the triad of civil, political and social rights become rebalanced within an emerging ‘social prevention state’ (4). A short conclusion will follow (5).