Supporters of big government and the welfare state regularly accuse their opponents of lacking ‘compassion’. But how much have they thought about what compassion really involves? And how do they reconcile their support for compassion with their general disdain for private charity?

In this Occasional Paper, Roger Kerr takes a fresh look at the relationship between charity and compassion. He suggests that ‘the link between compassion and the welfare state, if it ever existed, has been largely shattered by perverse incentives and political opportunism’. In place of our present reliance on the state to do our charitable work for us, he calls for a return to genuine compassion at an individual level and a greater personal involvement with the lives of the less fortunate.

This edition includes a foreword by Dr Samuel Gregg.