Municipal Socialism Flashcards
Ku1
Municipal socialism is a political idea that emerged in the late 1800s in which the money of local authorities would be used to give the public a better quality of life, especially the poor. This idea was used in some liberal controlled authorities.
Ku2
In Birmingham, liberal party mayor joseph chamberlain used local money to create gas and water supplies controlled by the local government. He created new parks to give leisure time away from work and cleared away many slums dangerous for the health of the poor.
Analysis plus
However, the impact of this factor on the liberal’s decision to pass reforms was limited as very few local authorities pursued municipal socialism, so their overall impact on the governments thinking may have been limited at a time when major political issues like Irish Home Rule and votes for women were at play.i
Analysis
It can be argued that this was important in convincing the liberals to pass reforms as the liberal government could look at Birmingham as a positive example of what happened when the government intervened and were inspired to pass reforms for the full country
Evaluation
in evaluation, municipal socialism is the least important reason the liberal’s introduced reforms as the upper and middle classes remained in huge opposition in Britain to the idea of taxing the wealthy more to provide for the poor – particularly from the upper class who resented losing out financially to provide for the needy. However, booth and Rowntree were the most important factor as there reports changed many individuals views on poverty changing many peoples ideology away from laisse faire.
