John Rawls' A Theory of Justice was published in Britain in 1972. The summation of many years' work by Professor Rawls, it has stimulated widespread admiration and criticism. In this article Rawls' theory is summarized briefly together with some of the major criticisms that have been made of it. An attempt is then made to apply one of Rawls' principles of justice to the question of health services financing, using as a case study the recommendations of an advisory panel of the British Medical Association, which reported in 1970. These recommendations involved extending the private sector in medical care, on the argument that the flow of resources to the National Health Service would increase and, despite possible greater inequalities, result in an improvement in the level of care for all. Judged by the Rawlsian principle, these recommendations are not found likely to represent a just solution to the question of health service financing.

While ideology may not explain differences in welfare policy on an international comparative basis, it can help account for the process of policy development in a particular country. In Israel, ideology was very significant in the historical development of public assistance by its influence on social security policy choices concerning the removal of certain groups from the residual programme of public assistance. Indirectly, ideology also shaped the extent and type of convergence of public assistance and social insurance, as well as the relative size and scope of these two benefit systems. It had, however, relatively little influence on the subsequent operating character of the public assistance programme, which seems to have an inner logic, independent of ideology, inhering in its operating principles. The latter — local responsibility, relative liability, less eligibility and means-testing – were reinforced by the organizational character of the sponsoring agency. Because they serve as a residual programme for groups whose claim for support is not yet legitimized, public assistance programmes in most Western countries will confront the same dilemmas and acquire a similar operating character.

The purpose of this essay is to examine aspects of educational policy-making at the local level in the USA. I shall present some empirical evidence to support the claims that local control by citizens is an illusion rather than a reality and that the professional educators have a large measure of discretion in determining the organization of education in their local communities. The evidence is adduced from an intensive study of the budgetary process in four school districts and in essence shows that the size of the community is not a causative factor in determining the nature of control; nor is the form of government – namely town or city – found to have any appreciable effect upon the extent of citizen participation or control.