Creating The Welfare State In France 1880 1940

In this work, Timothy Smith argues that although post-World War II politicians have attempted to take credit for the creation of the welfare state, the social reform movement in France actually grew out of World War I. Smith shows that French social spending before World War II was well above the European average and demonstrates that the present welfare state is based on a structure that already existed but was expanded and consolidated with great political fanfare during the 1940s. Smith shows that France's most important social legislation to date - providing medical insurance, maternity benefits, modest pensions, and disability benefits to millions of people - was passed in 1928 (and amended and put into practice in 1930). This law covered over 50 per cent of the population by 1940. Few other nations could have claimed this sort of social insurance success. As well, by 1937 the centuries-old public assistance residency requirements had been transferred from the local to the departmental (regional) level. France's success in introducing important social reforms may require us to rethink the common view of interwar France as a time of utter political, economic and social failure.

In this work, J.A. Chandler explains how local government in Britain has evolved from a structure that appeared to be relatively free from central government interference to, as John Prescott observes, 'one of the most centralised systems of government in the Western world'.

Even though the policy impact of Catholicism has increasingly been acknowledged, existing scholarship lacks a coherent view on its changing influence over time and in different political contexts. In this book, Fabio Bolzonar investigates the influence of Catholicism on developments in French social protection from World War II to the mid-2010s. He discusses the factors that have favoured or inhibited it and explores the hybridization between Catholic values and secular principles in the social engagement of Catholic actors in secular France. By doing so, this multidisciplinary study integrates current scholarship, which has given limited attention to the changing patterns of Catholic involvement in the social policy domain over a long period of time, and the renewed influence of Catholic values in secularized societies. Catholic mobilization has relocated from the political to the civil society sphere, making voluntary organizations and social movements, rather than political parties, the main channels for defending Catholic values in secular France. Rather than marginalizing Catholicism, this process has opened up new opportunities for Catholic actors and values to play a significant role in society and politics. Bolzonar identifies two divergent scenarios that define Catholic social engagement in contemporary France: either the strengthening of new forms of institutional collaboration between Catholic-inspired philanthropic organizations and public administrations in the interest of socially vulnerable citizens, or the emergence of new ideological conflicts on gender- and sexuality-related issues.

Eric Jabbari examines Pierre Laroque's contribution to the rise of the French welfare state, namely his role as the architect of the social security plan which was adopted by the provisional government in 1945. The conception of the Laroque Plan was a product of his work as a civil servant and social policy expert, and it reflected the diverse combination of influences: his background in administrative law and his onetime support for the corporatist management of industrial relations. These experiences were all the more notable since they were marked by his belief in the necessity of an increased state interventionism which was mitigated by administrative decentralisation. The purpose of social policy, in his mind, was to cultivate social solidarity, a task which could best be achieved if the beneficiaries of this policy could be encouraged to participate in its implementation. These concerns remained central to his conception of the state and society long after he lost his enthusiasm for corporatism, and contributed to the shape of post-war social security.

This study of US military benefits “offers a disturbing view of the armed forces as a high-value target in political clashes over public assistance” (The Nation). Since the end of the draft, the U.S. Army has prided itself on its patriotic volunteers who heed the call to “Be All That You Can Be.” But beneath the recruitment slogans, the army promised volunteers something more tangible: a social safety net including medical care, education, housing assistance, legal services, and other privileges that had long been reserved for career soldiers. The Rise of the Military Welfare State examines how the U.S. Army’s extension of benefits to enlisted men and women created a military welfare system of unprecedented size and scope. In the 1970s, widespread opposition to the draft led to the establishment of America’s all-volunteer army. For this to succeed, a new strategy was needed for attracting and retaining soldiers. The army solved the problem, Jennifer Mittelstadt shows, by promising to take care of its own. While the United States dismantled its civilian welfare system in the 1980s and 1990s, army benefits continued to expand. Mittelstadt also examines how critics of this expansion fought to roll back its signature achievements, even as a new era of war began.

Explores the complex interactions between French medicine and Vietnamese childbirth traditions, documenting the emergence of a plural system of maternity services that incorporated both biomedical knowledge and local birthing traditions.

This book traces women’s influence on maternity policy in Norway from 1880-1940. Maternity policies, including maternity leave, midwifery services and public assistance for mothers, were some of the first welfare policies enacted in Norway. Feminists, midwives, and working women participated in their creation and helped transform maternity policies from a restriction to a benefit. Situating Norway within the larger European context, the book contributes to discussions of Scandinavian welfare state development and further untangles the relationship between social policy and gender equality. The study of poor, rural women alongside urban middle-class feminists is rooted in an inclusive archival source base that speaks to the interplay between local and national welfare officials and recipients, the development and implementation of laws in diverse settings, the divergent effects maternity policies had on women, and women’s varied response.

Despite increasingly hardened visions of racial difference in colonial governance in French Africa after World War I, interracial sexual relationships persisted, resulting in the births of thousands of children. These children, mostly born to African women and European men, sparked significant debate in French society about the status of multiracial people, debates historians have termed 'the métis problem.' Drawing on extensive archival and oral history research in Gabon, Republic of Congo, Senegal, and France, Rachel Jean-Baptiste investigates the fluctuating identities of métis. Crucially, she centres claims by métis themselves to access French social and citizenship rights amidst the refusal by fathers to recognize their lineage, and in the context of changing African racial thought and practice. In this original history of race-making, belonging, and rights, Jean-Baptiste demonstrates the diverse ways in which métis individuals and collectives carved out visions of racial belonging as children and citizens in Africa, Europe, and internationally.