Welfare state Flashcards
Judt - postwar economic of planning
Drew directly upon lessons of 1930s
Successful recovery must preclude any return to economic stagnation, depression, and unemployment
Conventional wisdom suggested political polarisation came due to economic depression and its social costs
Judt - examples of rudimentary welfare provisions
Germany typically most advanced, instituted pension, accident and medical insurance under Bismarck
Pre-WW1 embryonic national insurance and pension schemes in Britain
However not comprehensive systems - cumulative ad hoc reforms, each covering a social problem or improving on previous schemes
Judt - war transforming obligation of the state
Pre-war there was no recognition of an obligation on the state to guarantee minimum services
WW2 transformed the role of the modern state and the expectations placed upon it
Judt - general points about postwar welfare states
Provision of social services chiefly concerned education, housing and medical care, as well as transport
Social security consisted mainly of state insurance agains illness, unemployment, accident, and the perils of old age
Every European state in the postwar years provided or financed most of these resources, some more than others, however payment varied between tax and claiming expenses
Judt - radical debate on welfare state
In isolation, social insurance, however generous, was not in principal politically radical (present in most conservative regimes)
Comprehensive welfare systems, however, were inherently re-distributive due to their universal character and sheer scale
Thus the welfare state in itself was a radical undertaking, and the variations in states reflected political calculation also
Judt - Eastern European opinion of welfare states
Communist regimes after 1948 did not usually favour universal welfare systems
They did not need to as they were at liberty to redistribute resources with force without spending scarce state funds on public services
E.g. they frequently excluded peasants from social insurance and political arrangements on political grounds
Judt - comparative ambitiousness
Sweden and Norway were vanguard of benefit provision, and West Germany kept in place Nazi era chilbirth programmes
However, Britain saw the most ambitious effort to build, from scratch, a genuine ‘Welfare State’
Reflected outright 1945 Labour majority, leaving them free to legislate unlike many other coalition governments
Most comprehensive social coverage attempted on so generous a scale all at once
Judt - Beveridge report
In 1942 - it was an indictment of the social injustices of pre-1939 British society and a policy template for root and branch reform once war was over
Even the Conservatives did not dare oppose its core recommendations, and it was the moral basis for the most popular and enduring elements of Labour’s postwar programme
Recommended NHS, adequate state pension, family allowances, and near-full employment
Judt - cost of the welfare state
Heavy - French spending on social services increased 64% 1938-49
Britain - by 1949 nearly 17% of all public expenditure was on social security alone
Judt - reasons why Europeans were willing to pay so much
Because times were difficult, and welfare systems guaranteed a minimum of fairness
Welfare states were not politically divisive (not revolutionary) and long term beneficiaries often middle classes - bound the classes together
Chief basis that these services corresponded with the proper tasks of government
Seemed the only sensible rout out of the abyss left by war
Garland - three concentric circles of welfare state government
First characterises it as welfare for the poor - narrowest conception, preferred by the opponents of the welfare state
Second focuses on social insurance, social rights, and social services (core elements abidingly popular with the electorate)
Third highlights economic management and the role of the government in regulating the state
Garland - metaphor for the welfare state
Capitalist economy - a dynamic machine for generating private profits through competitive production and market exchange
Welfare state - retrofitted set of gears, breaks, and distributors to steer the capitalist juggernaut along a socially acceptable course
Garland - lack of utopian ideals in welfare states
Product not of revolutionary idealism but piecemeal reform and cross-class coalitions, principles created by civil servants
Therefore they rarely provide unbridled enthusiasm, open to attack from both sides by committing to ‘middle way’ solutions
Ameliorative rather than curative - rarely achieve complete success or large-scale victory
Creators ranged from Beverage to Attlee to Bismarck
Garland - discrediting of traditional economic orthodoxies
In 1918, the victorious nations had hastened back to their pre-war economic policies, re-establishing the orthodoxies of free trade, the Gold Standard, and minimum public spending
By 1945, these orthodoxies had been utterly discredited by the economic collapse of the 1930s
Matsuura - 1955-65 targets
Targets were full employment and economic growth
Although successful, this policy was criticised as most growth was in the private sector, leaving a lack of social capital
Also poorer classes less able to share in the income
