History Assignment# Flashcards
Question?
How important was the rise of the labour party as a reason why liberals introduced social welfare reforms 1906-1914.
Introduction: knowledge
During the 1900s, a conservative called Samuel Smiles wrote a book called ‘Self-help’ which was published in 1859 which spoke about poverty being your own fault and the only way you should get out of it is by helping yourself with as little help from the government as possible. However, the Liberals, who were brought in in 1906, believed oppositely. They believed in putting things in place to help people who are in poverty including introducing the Poor Law which was a form of intervention when you had to prove that you were too sick to work. A French phrase called ‘Laissez- Faire’ translated to leave alone and many wealthy people believed that it was the right thing to do when people were in poverty as it was their own fault for being in it.
Introduction: Factors
The Rise of the Labour Party was the most important factor in introducing social welfare reforms in 1906-1914. However other factors including, the social surveys of Booth and Rowntree, Municipal socialism, Liberalism and Concerns over national security were also important to the introduction of social welfare reforms in 1906-1914.
The Rise of the Labour Party: Knowledge
The rise of the labour party was the most important reason why the liberals’ introduced reforms in 1906-1914. The Labour Party was founded in 1900 to represent the working class in parliament and had been borne out of the trade union movement holding very strong socialist values and beliefs. They wanted to introduce reforms such as free education, old age pensions and unemployment benefits and believed in nationalising the means of production which includes the coal mines and British factories. They didn’t believe that people who were not in physically demanding work deserved to make good profits when those in extreme physically demanding work were living in poverty, which motivated the working class to vote for them as that is also what many of them believed in. By 1883, many working-class men had been enfranchised through the second and third Great Reforms Acts, and those new voters tended to vote for the liberals as the appealed more to them than the conservative party.
The Rise of the Labour Party: Analysis
As a result, the Liberals began to pass reforms as they feared losing working class votes to the Labour party as it was clear that the Labour Party were growing in numbers which would scare the Liberals forcing them to introduce acts including the Old Age Pension Act which is like reforms proposed by the Labour Party so they wouldn’t lose power showing that the rise of the Labour party was important to Liberals passing reforms.
The Rise of the Labour Party: Analysis+
However, the Liberals manifesto in 1906 elections did not actually mention social welfare reforms that they had wanted to pass so therefore they would not be able to appeal to the working class as they haven’t told them what their plans are in passing reforms for them showing that the rise of the labour party was limited in causing the Liberals to pass reforms.
The Rise of the Labour Party: Evaluation
In evaluation, the rise of the labour party was the most important cause for liberals to introduced reforms because after the defeat of the 1906 election it can be suggested that there was public disappointment at the governments limited of achievements, outing pressure of the liberal government to act fast. So therefore, the rise of the labour party was the most important reason for the liberals to pass reforms.
Social Surveys of Booth and Rowntree: Knowledge
The social surveys of Booth and Rowntree was important to Liberals introducing social welfare reforms in 1906-1914. Chares Booth was a London businessman who didn’t believe in the claims that 1 in 5 people lived in extreme poverty and wanted to prove that poverty was limited in Britian and could be solved by charity. He discovered that it was a 1 in 3 people in London that were in fact in poverty which was a lot higher than what the socialists had suggested previously. Seebohm Rowntree was inspired by the work carried out by Booth in London and was determined to do the same in York. He discovered that 27.8% of Yorks population was in poverty which is quite similar to the poverty in London. He also discovered that there was primary and secondary poverty: primary poverty was when a family was unable to buy basic essentials with the money, they have whereas secondary poverty was when they had enough money to live but they wasted it on things like gambling and alcohol.
Social Surveys of Booth and Rowntree: Analysis
As a result, Booth and Rowntree presented their findings to the government which highlighted that the Poor Law system was insufficient with problems of poverty as not everyone was able to receive it even if they needed it which led to reforms being passed to help those in need.
Social Surveys of Booth and Rowntree: Analysis+
However, as Booth and Rowntree both accepted that the underserving poor did exist, the conservatives argued that the government should not need to step in to help those in poverty as it was their own fault, and they had the option to not be in poverty, but they chose to meaning those in need of help were not able to receive it, showing that the socials surveys of Booth and Rowntree was limited in causing Liberals to pass reforms.
Social Surveys of Booth and Rowntree: Evaluation
In evaluation, the influence of the social surveys of Booth and Rowntree was less influential than the rise of the labour party because the reforms passed did not meet the requirement of the suggestions of Booth and Rowntree. For example, the old age pension reforms were 2 shillings below the poverty line created by Rowntree, showing that Booth and Rowntree were unable to achieve what they had wanted.
Liberalism: Knowledge
Liberalism was important to Liberals introducing social welfare reforms in 1906-1914. There were two generations of Liberalism: the old liberals and the new liberals. Old Liberals had a Laissez- faire attitude and argued that liberalism stood for individual freedom with as least possible help from the government as possible. However, new liberals believed in state intervention to liberate people and help them out of poverty instead of social problems. A few of the new liberals including David Llyod George, Winston Churchill and Herbert Asquith. Llyod George was the chancellor from 1908, Churchill was the president of the Board of Trades from 1908, and Asquith was the prime minster from 1908.
Liberalism: Analysis
As a results, due to the important roles in the government held by the new liberals they were able to decide policies and ensure that reforms were being passed and the majority of the reforms were passed after 1908 this suggests that the new liberalism was crucial in encouraging the government to act to help the people showing the new liberals actually believed in helping those in poverty and that new liberalism was important to the liberals passing social welfare reforms.
Liberalism: Analysis+
However, Liberalism is limited because the reports of Booth and Rowntree changed the minds of the new liberals in the first place and Llyod George and Rowntree were associates who spoke regularly about the poor and what should be done to help them so therefore they got their ideas from Booth and Rowntree meaning it wasn’t their own ideas, and they didn’t bring anything extra to helping the liberals pass reforms.
Liberalism: Evaluation
In evaluation, the influence of new liberalism was influential as they proved that some people couldn’t escape poverty and this ‘underserving poor’ ran through the liberal reforms, however, the majority of the reforms were passed before the new liberals even came into power. For example, School meals act of 1906 came before the time of new liberals so they had no influence over the reforms that were passed so it can be suggested that they were unneeded.
Concerns over national security: Knowledge
Concerns over national security was important to liberals intruding social welfare reforms in 1906-1914. In 1899, the Boer war started, and Britain needed to recruit more soldiers. Volunteers began to join up however reports suggest that at least 25% of recruits were unfit to serve including 8,000 men in Manchester out of 11,000 men who volunteered were rejected due to their physically suitability. There was only 1200 men accepted, and it was claimed that only two out of five of the men who had enlisted were fit for service after only two years of the war. After the war, a study was formed called the Inter- Departmental Committee of Physical Deterioration was created to examine the reasons for why Britian performed bad in the war.
Concerns over National Security: Analysis
As a result, the high numbers of recruits being turned away opened the eyes of many members of the public and politicians and was clear evidence that Britain was not doing enough for the poor. This motivated the liberal reforms as people felt Britain was not to fall further than the workforce would have to be at least fit as to the competition in war and this is seen through the reforms aimed at children in school including the free school meals act showing that concerns over national security was important to liberals introducing social welfare reforms.
Concerns over National Security: Analysis+
However, concerns over national security were limited in causing liberals to introduce reforms because as they introduced reforms like the old age pension which did not help maintain the health of the army or the production of an effective workforce. So therefore, concerns over national security were limited in liberals introducing social welfare reforms.
Concerns over national security: evaluation
In evaluation, the influence of concerns over national security was less influential than the rise of the labour party because even though the Boer war showed evidence that there was a problem with poverty, Germany and the USA became stronger economically and posed a threat to Britian meaning concerns over national security was less influential than the rise of the labour party.
Municipal Socialism: Knowledge
Municipal socialism was important to liberals introducing social welfare reforms in 1906-1914. Municipal socialism is the belief that those of which who were wealthy would pay higher taxes of those of which who were poor, and the funds of the wealthy would be redistributed to help the most vulnerable in society in a local scale. Liberal, Joseph Chamberlain became mayor of Birmingham and introduced many reforms there by supplying waterworks to help improve the polluted water and introduces parks to allow access to nature
Municipal Socialism: Analysis
As a result, it can be argued that municipal socialism paved the way for national reforms as many politicians feared that using taxation to help those in need would ruin the country but once they seen the success in Birmingham and Glasgow it showed that it wasn’t necessarily the case, and it in fact improve the country, showing municipal socialism was important to liberals introducing social welfare reforms.
Municipal Socialism: Analysis+
However, municipal socialism was limited in causing liberals to introduce reforms because very few local authorities followed the policy so politicians in the Westminster would not have likely paid attention to its successes so those in need of the redisperesed money wouldn’t be able to get it, showing that municipal socialism is limited in liberals introducing social welfare reforms
Municipal Socialism: Evaluation
In evaluation, the influence of municipal socialism was less influential than the rise of the labour party because it can be argued that many politicians remained firmly against any ideas of raising taxes to pay for social welfare reforms, whereas, the rise of the labour party would use their own money made to pay for social welfare reforms, showing that it wasn’t as important as the rise of the labour party.
Conclusion: The Rise of the Labour Party
Overall, the rise of the labour party was the most important factor in liberals introducing social welfare reforms in 1906-14. This is because it was clear that the liberals introduced reforms due to the threat of the labour party as they grew in numbers of working-class supporters.
Conclusion: Social surveys of Booth and Rowntree
The social surveys of Booth and Rowntree were important because they were able to prove the Poor Law was system was insufficient in helping those in poverty allowing reforms to be passed to help them, however, the social surveys of Booth and Rowntree were less important than the rise of Labour because the conservatives argued about poverty being peoples own faults as Rowntree proved in his studies, whereas the labour party encouraged the government to help and pass reforms.
Conclusion: Liberalism
New liberalism was important because due to their roles in government they were able to decide policies and help the pass of reforms for those in poverty, however, New Liberalism was less important that the rise of Labour because their ideas came from Booth and Rowntree, so they had no new ideas, whereas the labour party knew what they wanted to do from the start by presenting the working class in parliament.
Conclusion: Concerns over National Security
Concerns over national security were important because due to the large number of recruits being turned away it showed many people what poverty was doing to their country, however, concerns over national security were less important than the rise of Labour because they introduced reforms including the old age pension that would not help the future population, whereas the labour party encouraged the liberals to pass reforms that would help the future population of Britian.
Conclusion: Municipal Socialism
Finally, municipal socialism was important because it’s said to have paved the way for national reforms as many politicians feared the use of taxation but once they seem success in Birmingham it took away that fear they felt, however, municipal socialism was less important than the rise of Labour because it was not mandatory for local authorities to follow the regulations so therefore it wasn’t paid attention to by politicians in places like Westminster, whereas the labour party had a lot of support from the working class making it very difficult to go unseen by Politicians.
