2: The Emergence of the Welfare State Flashcards
What 2 reasons are why the Welfare States Develop?
Process of Modernisation
Changing Needs
What does the ‘Process of Modernisation’, in terms of helping welfare states develop, include?
The development of… • nation states • industrialisation * • capitalism • political democracy
What does ‘Changing Needs’, in terms of helping welfare states develop, include?
Needs of…
• states (social order, bureaucracy, defence/expansion)
• industry (education, health including public health)
• capitalism (labour)
• people (income security)
In terms of ‘Process of Modernisation’ what does the development of industrialisation mean?
- Depending on the speed of industrialisation, the welfare state policies can change
- Cities plus working class industrialisation creates a politics demanding certain goods & services
In the 17th century, which 2 key pieces of legislation came through?
1601 Act for the Relief f the Poor (43rd of Elizabeth)
1662 Settlement Act
What 2 themes surrounded the 1601 At for the Relief of the Poor (43rd f Elizabeth)?
- Themes: ‘scroungerphobia’; work incentives; ‘earning’ benefits; training for unemployed people; social assistance
Distinguished between classes of poor according to their ability to work
Parish ‘overseers’ responsible for ‘setting the poor on work’
‘a convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron and other necessary ware and stuff to set the poor on work and also competent sums of money for and towards the necessary relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind and such other among them being poor and not able to work’
- Themes: family support obligations; private provision and contracting-out of services
Established liability for support of dependents
‘And be it further enacted that the father and grandfather and the mother and grandmother and the children of every poor, old, blind, lame and impotent person or other person not able to work being of sufficient ability shall at their own charges relieve and maintain every such poor person’
Aimed for ‘management’ of poor people: ‘farming the poor’; poor houses and correction houses
What were the Themes of the 1662 Settlement Act?
Themes: Spatial dimensions of obligation; gender inequality and discrimination; parental obligation; social control; stigma; forced resettlement
Settlement depended on paternal birthplace, or birthplace of husband, or where you had been employed for previous 365 days
The ‘problem’ of lone mothers and ‘illegitimate’ children (for parishes: most expensive = most unwelcome)
‘Badging’ paupers to identify settlement
What are some examples of Key Changes to the Welfare System?
- Agricultural revolution during 18th Century (enclosures, new farming methods)
- Does put massive pressure on the system
- Labourers forced off land into growing towns
- Encouraged by early industrial revolution
- Falling wage rates after Napoleonic Wars
What are some examples of Policy Continuities?
Themes we can trace through history to the present:
- The moral separation between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor
- Workfare and ‘dependency’
- Relationship between poverty and low wages
- Family obligation
- Settlement (spatio-political responsibilities)
- Stigma and social control
- The role of popular ‘myths’ in shaping attitudes and policy
What problems arose in the 16th - 17th century?
Vagrancy: the state of living as a vagrant, a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging
Issues of social control (crime), and economic control (wage levels)
What is Vagrancy?
The state of living as a vagrant, a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging
Who were the Intellectual Influences of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act?
Edwin Chadwick Jeremy Bentham (Punishment) Thomas Malthus (Peverse incentives) David Ricardo (Economics) Samuel Smiles Self-help
What are the Practical Concerns of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act?
Cost of poor relief @
Approx. 20% of expenditure in 1832
What does the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act have Modern Parallels in Debates on?
Dependency
Moral decay
Causes of crime
What are the Three Key Ideas of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act?
- Centralised administration of poor relief under the authority of the Poor Law Commission
- Poor Law ‘Unions’ established and encouraged to build workhouses - The ‘Workhouse Test’
- Indoor poor relief to be offered according the the principle of
less eligibility - that the situation of those in receipt
of relief ‘shall not be made really or apparently so eligible
as the situation of the independent labourer of the lowest class’ - Moral separation of ‘paupers’ and ‘the poor’
- ‘Poverty had been regarded by many writers as a necessary
element in society, since only by feeling its pinch could the labouring poor be inspired to work. Thus it was was not poverty, but pauperism or destitution which was regarded as a social problem’ (Rose, M. (1972) The relief of poverty 1834-1914, p10)
Social-wise, what are the Influential factors in the emergence of 20th century state welfare?
- The influence of individual civil servants and philanthropists; early social work and charity organisations e.g. Sir John Simon; Florence Nightingale; Dr. Thomas Barnado; General William Boothe
- The development of a social conscience - the poverty studies
- Health
Economic-wise, what are the Influential factors in the emergence of 20th century state welfare?
- The failure of the poor law to meet the needs created by insecure industrial jobs
- A recognised need for ‘national efficiency’to maintain the British empire (Boer War: poor health of British troops in South Africa)
- Health
Political-wise, what are the Influential factors in the emergence of 20th century state welfare?
- Working class political protest, especially in the North
- Increasing importance of working class votes e.g. election of 53 liberal/labour MPs in 1905
- Fear amongst the British establishment of the spread of socialism
Administrative-wise, what are the Influential factors in the emergence of 20th century state welfare?
The pre-existence of voluntary mutual insurance schemes
What was the Victorian/Social Legislation on Health?
- 1848 Public Health Act
establishes a central Board of Health + permissive Local Boards where 10% of population demands one. - 1866 Sanitary Act
compels local boards to improve sanitation, remove ‘nuisance’ and provide sewerage, clean water. - 1875 Public Health Act
gives local boards more powers to enforce public health standards.
What was the Victorian/Social Legislation on Education?
- 1870 Education Act
– establishes School Attendance Committees and provided for education between 5-13. In theory attendance was compulsory…but fees made this difficult. - 1880 Education Act
– Schooling compulsory to age of 10. (Increased to 13 in 1899). - 1902 Education Act
– Abolished School Boards and created Local Education Authorities in County Councils. LEAs given powers to establish 2ndary and Technical schools. School meals come in 1906 and medical inspections in 1907. - 1918 Education Act
– SLA raised to 14. - 1944 Education Act
– SLA raised to 15. Free education for all pupils. Introduces the tripartite divide among grammar, secondary modern and technical schools.
What was the Victorian/Social Legislation on the Economy?
The Factory Acts:
1833 – regulates women’s and children’s working hours
1847 – Limits women’s hours and those of children between 13-18 to 10 hours a day or 58 per week
1850 – further limits for women and children in textile industry
Education Acts then limit employers’ ability to employ children…
+ Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1897. (Compensation for industrial injury).
What was the Victorian/Social Legislation on Politics?
1832 Reform Act – small landowners, tenant farmers and shopkeepers given the vote (all male). A £10 registration fee kept numbers down…
1867 Reform Act – All male urban householders get vote + male lodgers paying £10+ for furnished rooms. Dual voting abolished.
1884 Reform Act – Vote given to all males, including in rural areas. Two-thirds of males enfranchised by the act.
1918 Reform Act – vote given to all males over 21 and women over 30
1928 Reform Act – women over 21 win the vote
Unfinished
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