Rejecting fashionable subjectivist and cultural relativist approaches, this important new book argues that human beings have universal and objective needs for health and autonomy and a right to their optimal satisfaction. The authors develop a system of social indicators to show what such optimisation would mean in practice and assess the records of a wide range of developed and underdeveloped economies in meeting their citizens' needs. 'An extremely challenging and thought-provoking study which will undoubtedly become the focus of a major debate. After a period when social democratic and socialist thought have been in retreat this book signals a rekindling of hope and commitment...their arguments are likely to set the terms of the debate from now on.' - Andrew Gamble 'An ambitious and very welcome book...[which] combines a tight argument and a wide ranging application...This will prove a major text not just in terms of the theory presented and the data that is summarised but in the research questions it poses.' - Nigel Parton, Times Higher Education Supplement '(A) scrupulous and sophisticated case...for the ascription of universal needs...What is important and original...about [Doyal and Gough's] project is that it not only tells us what our basic needs are...but offers empirical criteria for the meeting of these goals...' - Kate Soper, New Left Review