Revisiting the Self-Help Housing debate: Perception of Self-Help Housing by the beneficiaries of South African low-cost housing

2.2.2 The role of the State according to liberal thought

According to classical liberals, such as Rawls, the State should not be directly concerned with the people's welfare. It must, however, seek to create a workable society founded on principles of justice. This is to say that «liberal government cannot be other than limited government, since all strands within the liberal transition confer upon person's rights or claims in justice which government must acknowledge and respect and which, indeed may be invoked against government» (Gray, 1986: 73).

Also, the diminished role of government actually appears in democratic constitutions. In fact, in all democratic constitutions, prerogatives of government are well defined and consequently it limits the role of government so that the government can act in a well defined framework that avoids arbitrary and unreasonable policies (Hopkins, 2003). Other advocates of liberalism argue that the role of the State is to serve the interests of all the people, and not a just single class or group (Gerber, 1983). This means that the goal of the liberal State is to create justice which guarantees the freedom of all citizens. The freedom is considered as a framework in which every citizen has to pursue his goal. It may be argued that a liberal state is a «society of largely free or ungoverned or only self-governed, independent individuals, living together under and jointly supporting a small, simple, inexpensive government having only a quite limited sphere of authority or a few quite limited powers and functions» (Taylor, 1960: 7). The State intervention in a liberal State must be as little as possible and coercion should be used if and only if other freedoms are violated. This liberal conception of State is associated with the concept of «laissez-faire» which is defended by Adam Smith (Gray, 1986).

Turner (1972) espouses liberal thought when he argues that the role of the State is to help people to be the main actors of housing process. In sum, the role of the State according to liberal thought may be summarized as a search for:

«a legal order or system of law or legal justice which should impartially protect or enforce the equal and reciprocal rights and duties among all and prevent, with the minimal or most humane, sufficient, deterrent penalties, all commissions by anyone or advancing special interests in ways involving injustices or injuries to others or the common welfare» (Taylor, 1960: 96-97).

In other words, the specific role that liberals assign to the State is to seek the general interest of the whole society (Burgess, 1985).

Despite the limited role that the State must play, advocates of liberalism argue that the State must «have certain wholly positive functions as part of the task of maintaining a free order» (Gray, 1986: 80). In relation to housing, a liberal State may play the role of facilitator through organizing and planning.

2.2.2.a The State organizing housing activities

In a liberal State, the role of organizing housing activities is especially done through laws which must be elaborated according to the principles of justice (see Rawls, 1972 especially in his principles of justice)^10(*). This role may be operated by the State in providing real services such as education which allows citizens to know the laws ruling housing issues. Real services also include housing finance which must be accessible to every citizen, especially low-income people. Likewise, if the State wants to properly play its role of organizing housing activities, it should also facilitate the access to land so that the low-income, like other income groups, can easily access land (Payne, 1999). The State may successfully organize housing activities in accordance with liberal thought if it creates a comprehensive and just framework which allows every one without any discrimination (race, sex, religion, etc) in the country to fairly exercise his housing right.

* ¹⁰ Rawls has elaborated two main principles of justice. The first is in relation to freedom which every citizen must enjoy and the second is about the fair opportunities of chance. The second principle has, according to Rawls, the aim of avoiding discrimination and inequalities in the society.