The Beveridge report: Political and intellectual origins

Résumé du document

The historiography of the political and intellectual origins of the Report on Social Insurance and Allied Services – or Beveridge Report, named after William Beveridge, the Chairman of the Commission- was chiefly displayed in the document itself. Published in 1942 and highly edited, the white paper inherently exposed a political and intellectual review of British social security.

The political evolution of the schemes of social insurance and assistance –including the Beveridge Report- was mainly presented as a response to practical political and community problems which synthesis was the Welfare State originated in the Beveridge Report: a universal and comprehensive State insurance of social assistance. However, the intentions behind social legislations were discussed; historians such as Bruce Maurice (1968) and Derek Fraser (2003) disagreed on the causes of evolution. Maurice pointed that the Welfare State had grown out of the needs of the English people and out of the struggle for social justice whereas Fraser advanced an erratic and pragmatic response to practical individual and community problems of an industrial society.

Regarding the intellectual evolution of the social policy, it appeared that political and economical problems catalyzed social changes firstly originated by intellectuals and next supported by politicians and the community influenced by intellectuals' publications. Jose Harris (May, 1992) and John Offer (2006) presented the intellectual framework of social policy as previous to political and popular frameworks. Social-reform literature of the 18th century was moralist and utilitarianist (Smith, 1759; Bentham, 1789), and the New Poor Law set up in 1834 resulted from and in the intellectual trends.

Extraits

[...] Funeral grants were also made universal and included in compulsory insurance. At last, the income limit would be abolished as well as the means test. People, who annually earned more than £420 in non-manual occupation, would be covered by the insurance scheme. Benefit, irrespective of the means of the beneficiary, would be given in return for contribution, irrespective of the means of the contributor. As for the duration of the provision of benefits and pensions at full rate, it was proposed it be indefinite; in other words it had to last as long as the person was unemployed, sick or retired. [...]

[...] So, systematic regulation and improvement were to be still based on human rationality. The thinkers who developed New Liberalism were mainly journalists and/or academics. Academic theorists such as J.A. Hobson and L.T. Hobhouse, who both studied and taught at Oxford - where T.H. Green had taught moral philosophy-, developed and voiced their theories through journals and newspapers such as the “Manchester Guardian” which editorial line reflected the progressive liberal thought from 1872 when C.P Scott became its editor. The latter, who had also studied at Oxford, invited in 1896 L.T. [...]

[...] The People's War. London: Cape Constantine, Stephen. Unemployment in Britain Between the Wars. London: Longman Craig F.W.S., Rallings C. & Thrasher M (ed.). British Electoral Facts, 1832- 1999. Aldershot:Ashgate Publishing Company Crowther, M. A. British Social Policy 1914-1939. Basingstoke : Macmillan Education Davies, A.J. To Build a New Jerusalem: the British Labour Movemement from the 1880s to the 1990s. [...]

[...] Beveridge Report : Summary of Principles and Proposals. London: Labour Party Williams Karel and Willams John (Ed.). A Beveridge Reader. London: Allen & Unwin Ideologies of social reforms Abel-Smith Brian & Titmuss Kay (Ed.). The Philosophy of Welfare : Selected Writings of Richard M. Titmuss. London: Allen & Unwin Freeden, Michael. The New Liberalism : an Ideology of Social Reform. Oxford: Clarendon Press Gilbert, Bentley B. “Winston Churchill Versus the Webbs: the Origins of the British Unemployment Insurance The American Historical Review Vol No 1966: 846-862. [...]

[...] Still, the demand was regulated and applicants had to show they had paid either eight contributions in the previous two years or 30 at any time, under the same terms as the standard benefit. Eventually the Conservatives abolished the Poor Law unions in 1929. The Local Government Act passed the responsibilities of the Poor Law unions to local authorities and in 1930 Poor Law was legally renamed Public Assistance. The economic depression resulting from the 1929 Wall Street Crash worsened the economic circumstance. [...]