This book criticises two rival views of social citizenship rights, as they are presented by two authors who are taken as representatives of broader currents of thought: Friedrich A. Hayek and neo-liberalism, and Raymond Plant and socialism. It is claimed that the alternative view presented here should still be regarded as liberal: it is part of an active view of liberalism, or a self-restrained constructivism, which should be distinguished both from neo-liberal evolutionism and socialist egalitarianism.