Marshall's concept defines the social responsibilities the state has to its citizens or, as Marshall puts it, “from [granting] the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security to the right to share to the full in the social heritage and to live the life of a civilized being according to the standards prevailing in the society”.
However, these have also become controversial issues as there is a debate over whether a citizen truly has the right to education and even more so, to social welfare.
“Neo-Liberal (Free-Market) ideology [asserts] that state abstention from economic protection is the foundation of a good society”,[2] thus they are diametrically opposed to the social rights proposed by Marshall.
Neo-liberals instead suggest that welfare programs (some of the social responsibilities discussed by Marshall to help the poor “effectively utilize their civil and political rights”[1]), have “promoted passivity among the poor, without actually improving their chances, and created a culture of dependency”.
[4] Though the original essay fails to view perspectives other than that of a working class white male, social citizenship not only can be but has been applied to myriad peoples.