Welfare State

Series of laws and political decisions taken after 1945 with the aim of providing a social net and access to education, housing and health for everyone. Prepared by committees, research and inquiries about the social condition in Britain such as the Beveridge Report (1942) or the Butler Act (1944).

"Welfare was seen not merely as a means of meeting a need, but by its organisation, and the means by its delivery, it was conceived as a tool for building good character." - Frank Field in his essay "The Welfare State - Never Ending Reform" (2011)

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005, 1732), the term Welfare State is either “a system by which the government provides a range of free services to people who need them, for example medical care, money for people without work, care for old people, etc.” or it refers to “a country that has such a system.” This article will mainly deal with the first possibility of the definition. Additionally, the focus in this article is on the British welfare state. Information on the welfare states Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland and Ireland can be found in The Welfare State – Past, Present, Future (2002).

When referring to the British welfare state, the time that is thought of is usually from after the Second World War in 1945 to today. However, the earliest forms of this system emerged, according to Field’s essay (2011), already in medieval times. Adding, it should be mentioned that the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck “was the first statesman in modern history to develop a far-reaching and comprehensive programme for the state to heal social wounds of modern society” (Barmeyer in Jensen 2002, 98). During Bismarck’s time, many people moved from rural areas to the city, the birth rate was high in the lower class and poverty (cf. Barmeyer in Jensen 2002, 98) were the main societal problems. Thus, Bismarck created a welfare programme in order to support the workers and those who did not have a job, to provide social security and undermine the claims of the Socialist (and Social Democratic) Parties that the capitalist-industrial system was rotten to the core (cf. Barmeyer in Jensen 2002, 99). Yet, not only did the German chancellor support his people but also the state as a system. His goal was to “make it financially more independent from countries and communities” (Barmeyer in Jensen 2002, 100). Due to these facts, one might want to agree with Field (2011) who states that “Lloyd George¹ did not therefore invent the welfare state. As we have seen it was already very much in existence. But he did, along with a young Winston Churchill, refine the concept and drive it forward into the arms of the state - surprising for a Liberal politician.”

Two of the many aspects a welfare system works on are unemployment insurance and the goal of providing housing for each citizen. Unemployment is always connected to the processes in a nation’s economy. The table by Carroll (1999, 127 cited in Sjöberg, Palme and Carrol 2010) shows that Britain introduced the first law, a comprehensive insurance, in 1911. Also, Great Britain was apart from Germany the only country to “reduce[…] the duration of ordinary insurance benefits” (Sjöberg, Palme and Carrol, 423). Providing unemployment insurance becomes a major difficulty when a country has economic problems. This can be seen, for instance, during the oil crises in 1973 and 1979 (cf. Sjöberg, Palme and Carrol, 425). It cannot be argued that the difficulties connected to unemployment insurance are problems of the past. Looking at our today’s financial crises, Great Britain and all other European countries struggle to find the perfect way of supplying this insurance in times of bank failure, the widening gap of rich vs. poor and the steady decline of jobs since basically everything gets more expensive; including the wages of employees.

Housing has two meanings: “it can refer to a service (the accommodation that housing provides) and a capital asset (the dwelling that produces this service)” (Fahey and Norris, 481). Beside food and drinks, housing is one of the main needs all humans long for. Not only is a house or an apartment a place to feel comfortable at but it also provides security, a warm environment and a place to return to. Politicians have worked and are still working on this matter by providing shelters for refugees, immigrants and those who live beyond the poverty line; i.e. for those who cannot afford a ‘roof over their heads’ themselves. The table “Government housing interventions in European Union member states (2004/5)” in Fahey and Norris’s essay (2010, 486) shows strikingly that 19 % of households in the United Kingdom receive housing allowances. This is a relatively high number, since it is only 7 % in Germany and only 0.5 % in Italy and Slovenia.

In conclusion, the main aim of the system of a welfare state is to support especially those citizens who are in need. Thus, the great differences in society are supposed to be removed. The basic human needs, according to Maslow e.g. food and housing, should be provided for each person. Yet, beside the unemployment insurance and the providing of housing, many more laws and the Welfare State as we know it, came after the Second World War. Life of Britain’s entire population was and still is valued and meant to improve by means of a welfare state.

Notes:

¹ David Lloyd George (Liberal Party) became Prime Minister in December 1916 and dropped out of office in 1922. He died 26 March 1945.

Bibliography:

BBC History website: Historic figures. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/george_david_lloyd.shtml. Accessed: 13.05.2012

Fahey, Tony & Michelle Norris. Housing. In: The Oxford Handbook Of The Welfare State. Francis G. Castles, Stephan Leibfried, Jane Lewis, Herbert Obinger & Christopher Pierson (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. 479-493.

Field, Frank. The Welfare State - Never Ending Reform. 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/field_01.shtml. Accessed: 13.05.2012.

Jensen, Henrik (ed.). The Welfare State – Past, Present, Future. Pisa: Edizioni Plus – Università di Pisa, 2002.

Sjöber, Ola, Joakim Palme & Eero Carroll. "Unemployment Insurance". In: The Oxford Handbook Of The Welfare State. Francis G. Castles, Stephan Leibfried, Jane Lewis, Herbert Obinger & Christopher Pierson (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. 420-434.

Wehmeier, Sally et al. (eds.). Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.