Social Welfare 1850 1950

This historical study of the development of social welfare systems in divergent countries draws on a variety of essays to examine the work of each country in turn, followed by a comparison of all three and an examination of social experiments in regions of recent settlement.

Originally published in 1981 The Emergence of the Welfare State in Britain and Germany 1850-1950 is an edited collection on the history and future prospects of the modern welfare state. It attempts to pave the way for an analysis of the problems of the welfare state and its historical origins, and the likely future that transcends the nation-state orientated historical accounts. This collection of essays seeks to promote an interdisciplinary approach to the problems of the welfare state in two industrial societies. So far historians and social scientists concerned with this field of research have tended to work in isolation from one another, without mutual exchange of knowledge and using different methods. This book attempts to give equal scope to both perspectives.

Generally, the term "welfare state" refers to an ideal model of provision, where the state accepts responsibility for the provision of comprehensive and universal welfare for its citizens. Among other things, it determines under what conditions babies are born and children cared for, what happens when workers cannot find employment, and how the aged will cope with illness and the lack of income. This book provides the reader with historical and updated information on welfare states around the globe. Given the importance of the welfare state--and especially the new challenges it is facing--this reference work comes at the ideal time. Through cross-referenced A to Z entries, this book focuses on the historical development of the welfare state, while simultaneously providing in-depth explanation of core terms and elements of the welfare states, their structure, their present situation, and their historical developments. Supplementing the dictionary entries are a chronology, an introduction, and a bibliography.

This book examines employee welfare in British and German companies from the 19th century through to the present day. Tracing the history of employee welfare, this comparative study reveals new issues beyond the dominant focus on the welfare state, showing that companies are an integral part of welfare systems with surprisingly few differences between the UK and Germany. Maintaining that employee welfare is a key feature of the modern employment relationship, Behling shows how the welfare programme supported industrialisation in the 19th century by cementing the standard employment model of the Fifties and Sixties, as well as how it revolves around corporate social responsibility today. The result is an innovative exploration into the changing nature of employment relationships, contemporary welfare systems, and the co-evolutionary - rather than categorical - development of economic and political institutions. An engaging and well-researched text, this book will hold special appeal to scholars of social policy, welfare politics, as well as anyone interested in the role of the state in people’s working lives.

How did Britain transform itself from a nation of workhouses to one that became a model for the modern welfare state? The Winding Road to the Welfare State investigates the evolution of living standards and welfare policies in Britain from the 1830s to 1950 and provides insights into how British working-class households coped with economic insecurity. George Boyer examines the retrenchment in Victorian poor relief, the Liberal Welfare Reforms, and the beginnings of the postwar welfare state, and he describes how workers altered spending and saving methods based on changing government policies. From the cutting back of the Poor Law after 1834 to Parliament’s abrupt about-face in 1906 with the adoption of the Liberal Welfare Reforms, Boyer offers new explanations for oscillations in Britain’s social policies and how these shaped worker well-being. The Poor Law’s increasing stinginess led skilled manual workers to adopt self-help strategies, but this was not a feasible option for low-skilled workers, many of whom continued to rely on the Poor Law into old age. In contrast, the Liberal Welfare Reforms were a major watershed, marking the end of seven decades of declining support for the needy. Concluding with the Beveridge Report and Labour’s social policies in the late 1940s, Boyer shows how the Liberal Welfare Reforms laid the foundations for a national social safety net. A sweeping look at economic pressures after the Industrial Revolution, The Winding Road to the Welfare State illustrates how British welfare policy waxed and waned over the course of a century.

Neo-liberalism has been one of the most influential ideologies since the Second World War. This book provides an original account of its intellectual foundations, development and conceptual configuration as an ideology.Newly available in paperback, this book presents a comparative study of the development and the nature of neo-liberal ideas in the national contexts of Germany, Britain and the United States since the twentieth century, addressing the following questions: * What are neo-liberalism's intellectual origins? * What influence did neo-liberalism have on public policy debates? * What are neo-liberalism's core concepts and how have they been interpreted in different national contexts that make it a distinctive ideology? In answering these questions, the book provides a deeper insight into the historical and intellectual origins and conceptual configuration of an ideology that reshaped politics and societies across the world.

Definitions of the welfare state often focus on how and why a state intervenes in the economy and welfare of the individual citizen. A welfare state does not, however, have to mean state intervention; it may merely reflect the state’s restrictions and the demands of the labor market, families, and the rest of civil society. This book covers the history of the welfare state from Chancellor Otto von Bismarck’s reforms in Germany starting in 1883 to the present day. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of the Welfare State covers the history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 hundred cross-referenced entries that focus on the definitions and concepts that are the most relevant, long lasting, and important concepts. It provides insights from major areas in social science, including sociology, economics, political science, and social work. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the welfare state.