Theme 2 a 4 - Challenges to state welfare provision, 1964-79 Flashcards

Question 1

Q

What was one of the main reasons that the welfare state was put under pressure between 1964-79?

Answer

A

Britains economic decline- which made it seem unaffordable to many right-wing thinkers and MPs who increasingly posed challenges to welfare provision.

Question 2

Q

Economic decline

What did the Labour campaign promise as part of the 1964 General Election?

Answer

A

Promised to increase welfare spending.

Question 3

Q

Economic decline

Who became prime minister for the 1964 election?

What did he discover?

Answer

A

Harold Wilson

Discovered that Britian had serious economic problems that had been hidden by the previous Conservative chancellor - Reginald Maudling.

Question 4

Q

Economic decline

What did Wilson & his chancellor discover was the budget defecit in Britain?

What was it a result from?

Answer

A

£800 million.

Result of Britains overspending on its military & welfare system- and too many imports entering the country during period of mass consumerism.

Question 5

Q

Economic decline

What did wilsons advisors suggest he should do in order to rescue the economy?

What was Wilsons response to this?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Cut welfare benefits in order to rescue the economy.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Refused- due to his commitment to the welfare state & his desire to win the next election.</li></ul>

Question 6

Q

Economic decline

Wilsons decision to stick to his commitments on expanding welfare provision meant what happened throughout his time in office?

What were his government forced to pay for & how did they pay for this?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Successive economic crises!</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Gov- forced to pay for a growing welfare state in the 1960s by increasing levels of taxation.</li></ul>

Question 7

Q

Economic decline

In order for Wilsons government to pay for the growing welfare state- they had to use increasing levels of taxation. What were individual taxpayers response to this?

By 1966- what happened to social welfare costs?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>It led to a growing resentment against the cost of welfare!</li></ul>

<ul> <li>They had risen to 5% of GDP and were continuing to grow!</li></ul>

Question 8

Q

National Insurance Act, 1970

How did Heaths act extend welfare?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Gave pension rights to 100,000 people who had not been covered by the 1948 National Insurance Act.</li> <li>Introduced an attendance allowance for people who needed long- term care at home.</li> <li>It established invalidity benefit.</li> <li>It increased the child allowance given to mothers.</li> <li>Made rent subsidies available for low-income families in private accomodation.</li></ul>

Question 9

Q

Who introduced the National Insurance Act, 1970?

Answer

A

Heath

Question 10

Q

Right wing challanges

During the 1970s- what did wight-wing conservatives such as Sir Keith Joseph argue?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Welfare state = leading to reduction in individual freedom.</li> <li>Argued state was the enemy of individual freedom & any growth in welfare state- lead to restriction of individual freedom.</li> <li>Advocates of welfare state assumed government had right to take money away from citizens in order to improve lives of poor citizens</li></ul>

Question 11

Q

Right-wing challanges

Who was a right-wing conservative that believed that the welfare state was leading to a reduction of individual freedom?

Answer

A

Sir Keith Jospeh

Question 12

Q

Right-wing challanges

What did Joseph claim Wilson would time as time went on?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>He would take more money in taxes to fund an even larger welfare state.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>The growth of the state & increased taxes restricted the freedom of British citizens and should therefore be stopped.</li></ul>

Question 13

Q

Right-wing challenges

Who was politician Sir Keith Joseph inspired by in his ideas about the welfare state?

Answer

A

Austrian economist- Friedrich Hayek

Question 14

Q

Welfare and efficiency

What did Joseph & right-wingers at the think-tank Institute of Economic Affairs believe welfare spending led to ?

What did they argue- also inspired by Hayek?

Answer

A

Led to economic inefficiency.

<ul> <li>Claimed private businesses were run to make profit- therefore would spend money in the most efficient way.</li> <li>Government in contrast- did not want to make a profit & had no reason to spend its money efficiently. So the more money the gov spent- the more inefficient economy would be.</li></ul>

Question 15

Q

Welfare and efficiency

What did Joseph argue was one of the reasons for Britains economic problems?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Since 1945 governments had been spending large amounts of money on welfare.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Therefore Conservatives should seek to cut government spending in order to make the economy more efficient & Britain richer.</li></ul>

Question 16

Q

Welfare & inflation

What did Joseph argue that welfare spending required high amounts of?

What did this do to the economy and what were the consequences?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Required high levels of government borrowing.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>This increased the amount of money in the economy without increasing the amount of goods available.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Consequence- too much money chasing too few goods, which led to inflation: a general rise in the level of prices.</li></ul>

Question 17

Q

Welfare & inflation

What did Jospeh argue that the governmentdid in response to inflation rising & what were the consequences?

What was the only way Jospeh thought would end the cycle?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Governments tried to make things better with increased welfare spending- which in turn led to even worse inflation.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Only way to break cycle = cut government spending- particularly in areas such as welfare.</li></ul>

Question 18

Q

What link did radicals in the Conservative party believe was present with welfare?

Answer

A

Link between welfare and dependency.

Question 19

Q

Towards the end of the 1970s- what culture did radical conservatives such as Margaret Thatcher & Keith Josephs claim that the welfare state created?

What did they claim that welfare payments encouraged people to do?

Answer

A

Dependency culture.

Encouraged people to live on benefits rather than gets jobs.

Question 20

Q

Welfare & dependency

What consequences did the 'culture of dependency' have?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Promoted economic decline- more and more people gave up work and therefore contributed nothing to the economy.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Perpetuated relative poverty, because people preferred to to live on relatively small handouts rather than earning a decent wage.</li></ul>

Question 21

Q

Welfare & dependency

According to the Conservative right- they believed that the dependency culture resulted in moral problems. What did they claim?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Welfare robbed recipients of self-respect that people gained through hard work.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Robbed people of their initiative & independence. </li></ul>

<ul> <li>Created a class of people with no aspirations, goals or self-respect who contributed nothing to society but demanded even larger handouts from the state.</li></ul>

Question 22

Q

An end to consensus

Why did the consensus on welfare come under increasing strain?

Answer

A

Following Heaths failure to win the election of 1974.

Question 23

Q

An end to consensus

Following Heaths defeat- what did his critics on the right sieze the opportunity to do?

Answer

A

Replace him as a Conservative leader with Thatcher- a right wing candidate who was less sympathetic towards the welfare state.

Question 24

Q

An end to consensus

What generation of conservatives did Thatcher lead?

Answer

A

Generation of Conservatives who no longer believed in the post-war consensus and felt that cuts to welfare would encourage people to be more self-reliant and less dependent on the state.

Question 25

Q

Welfare policies, 1974-79

What did policies did the new Conservative leadership attack?

Answer

A

Wilsons Labour welfare policies.

Question 26

Q

Welfare policies, 1974-79

What policies of Wilsons did the new Conservative leadership attack?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>A 25% rise in pension rates & a freeze of council house rents in the budget of 1974.</li> <li>Invalid Care Allowance, 1975.</li> <li>Universal Child Benefit, 1975 for all children including the firstborn; the number of children under its remit doubled.</li></ul>

Question 27

Q

Welfare policies,1974-79

How did Wilson sought to pay for the welfare policies he introduced?

Answer

A

Taxing high- income earners and people who had an income from investments and property.

Question 28

Q

Welfare policies,1974-79

What did James Callaghan, who had succeeded Wilson as Labour prime minister in 1976 continue to do & give example?

Answer

A

Continued to develop welfare policies including new pension rights in the Supplementary Benefits Act, 1976.

Question 29

Q

What was the economic theory of monetarism?

Answer

A

It argued that it was excessive state spending and too much money in the economy that led to both inflation & unemployment.

Question 30

Q

In 1976 why did the first major cuts begin?

Answer

A

Began as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) insisted that the government cut its spending in return for a loan of $4 billion.

Question 31

Q

IMF cuts

What was the value of the cuts made?

What did it affect & what was unaffected?

Answer

A

£2.5 billion.

<ul> <li>Housing & education budgets were cut but pensions and other benefits were largely unaffected.</li></ul>

Question 32

Q

The opponents of welfare

In the 1970s- who became extremely critical of the way they saw excessive welfare spending?

Answer

A

Much of the press- particularly the Telegraph, The Times & The Financial Times.

A growing number of affluent working class & middle class people saw welfare as a problem not a solution- and looked to politicans who shared these same views.

Question 33

Q

The opponents of welfare

What did the 1970s see the beginning of?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>A general shift which had an impact on welfare.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>The Generation that had grown up in the 1970s were less inclined to endorse the collectivist ways of thinking- that had emerged from the Depression & WW2.</li></ul>

Question 34

Q

The opponents of welfare

What were the attitudes of the working class?

Answer

A

They were 'aspirational' - their goal was to grow rich rather than defend the rights of their class.

Therefore many had less time or sympathy for policies that meant higher taxes.

Question 35

Q

The opponents of welfare

Who appealed to the new generation fo the working class?

What did they want?

Answer

A

Thatcher!

Lower taxes & less welfare spending!

Question 36

Q

The opponents of welfare

How did the Conservatives enter the 1979 election?

Answer

A

Presented welfare as bad for the recipient, bad for the economy, bad for society & a burden on the taxpayer.

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Theme 2 a 4 - Challenges to state welfare provision, 1964-79 Flashcards

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