Abstract
This dissertation aims to provide a critique of New Zealand’s welfare law and policy. It will analyse the parallel historical development of the economy and the legal superstructure that serves it in three key chapters. In "Employment, Unemployment, and Work Incentives in Aotearoa", an overview will be provided of the effects of unemployment, New Zealand’s welfare system, and the role work incentives play within it. In "Workers, Capitalism, and the State", the development of the welfare system will be explored in relation to the changing form of capitalism in New Zealand. Finally, "Manufacturing the Dole Bludger" will relate the present state of the welfare system to its historic development and argue that the contemporary form of the welfare system is contingent on the state’s role in upholding New Zealand’s particular capitalist mode of production.