Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2007, 15(7):257-271 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.200

The Origin and Nature of the British Welfare State in 1939-1951

Martin Kovář, Jaromír Soukup
Doc. PhDr. Martin Kovář, Ph.D.; Ústav světových dějin Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Karlovy v Praze (makovar@atlas.cz).
PhDr. Jaromír Soukup; Fakulta sociálních věd Univerzity Karlovy v Praze (jsoukup2003@yahoo.com).

The British post-war Welfare State originated from so called Beveridge Report (1942). The Labour government was successful in its effort to transform the war economy to peace conditions; the realization of its reform programme from spring 1945, mainly forming the Welfare State, i.e. the nationalization of key industries, creating of national system of insurance and system of social security benefits, forming the National Health System and the attempt to start new housing and education policy, was much more complicated. The cabinet wanted to avoid the fundamental conflict with its electorate and with general public at all and that was the main reason why its reforms were not as radical as the Labour Party announced before the election in July 1945.

Keywords: Welfare State, Beveridge report, labour government, nationalization, national health service

Published: December 1, 2007  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Kovář, M., & Soukup, J. (2007). The Origin and Nature of the British Welfare State in 1939-1951. Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, 15(7), 257-271. doi: 10.18267/j.aop.200
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Abel-Smith, B. (1983): Sex, Equality and Social Security, in: Lewis, J. (ed.), Women's Welfare and Women's Rights. London, Croom Helm, 1983, s. 172 an.
    2. Abel-Smith, B. (1994): The Beveridge Report: Its Origins and Outcomes, in: Hills, J., Ditch, J., Glennerster, H. (eds.), Beveridge and Social Security. An International Retrospective. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994, s. 13. Go to original source...
    3. Abel-Smith, B. - Titmuss, K. (eds.) (1987): The Philosophy of Welfare. London, Allen & Unwin, 1987, s. 141 an.
    4. Addison, P. (1975): The Road to 1945. British Politics and the Second World War. London, Cape, 1975, s. 243-244.
    5. Atkinson, A. B. (1974): Poverty and Income Inequality in Britain, in: Wedderburn, W. (ed.), Atkinson, A. B. a kol. (1981): National Assistance and Low Incomes in 1950, in: Social Policy and Administration, Vol. 15, 1981, s. 19-31 Go to original source...
    6. Attlee, C. (1937): TheLabourParty in Perspective. London, Victor Gollancz, 1937.
    7. Baldwin, P. (1990): The Politics ofSocial Solidarity. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, 1. kapitola.
    8. Banting, K. G. (1979): Poverty, Politics and Policy. London, Macmillan, 1979, s. 68 an. Go to original source...
    9. Barry, E. E. (1965): Nationalisation in British Politics. The Historical Background. London, Jonathan Cape, 1965, s. 85 an.
    10. Blake, R. (1970): The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill. London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970, s. 263-264.
    11. Blake, R. (1985): The Decline of Power, 1915-1964. London, Granada, 1985, s. 284.
    12. Briggs, A. (1961): The Welfare State in Historical Perspective, in: European Journal of Sociology, Vol. 2, 1961, s. 228 an.
    13. Bruce, M. (ed.) (1971): The Rise of the Welfare State. English Social Policy, 1601-1971. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971, s. 236-237.
    14. Bullock,A. (1967): The Life and Times of Ernest Bevin, II: Minister of Labour. London, Heinemann, 1967, s. 62.
    15. Butler, D. (1995): British General Elections since 1945. Oxford, Blackwell, 1995, s. 63-64.
    16. Butler, Lord (1971): The Art of Possible: The Memoirs of Lord Butler. London, Hamilton, 1971, s. 145-146.
    17. Cairncross, A. (1992): The British Economy since 1945. London, Blackwell, 1992, s. 45 an.
    18. Calder, A. (1969): The People's War: Britain 1939-1945. London, Cape, 1969, s. 531 an.
    19. Castles, F.-Mitchell, D. (1990): Identifying Welfare State Regimes, in: Governance, 5,1990, s. 1-26 Go to original source...
    20. Childs, D. (1995): Britain since 1939: Progress and Decline. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1995. Go to original source...
    21. Childs, D. (2006): Britain Since 1945. London, Routledge, 2006, s. 10. Go to original source...
    22. Conservative Research Department(1949): AlltheAnswers. Westminster, 1949, s. 39 an.
    23. Dalton, H. (1962): High Tide and after: Memoirs 1945-1960. London, Frederick Muller, 1962, s. 70 an.
    24. Deacon, A. -Bradshaw, J. (1983): ReservedforthePoor. Oxford, Blackwell, 1983, s.61 an.
    25. Department of Employment and Productivity (1971): British Labour Statistics: Historical Abstract 1886-1968. London, H.M.S.O., 1971, s. 396
    26. Digby, A. (1999): The Evolution of General Practice 1850-1948. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999 Go to original source...
    27. Digby, A. - Bosanquet, N. (1988): Doctors and Patiens, in: Economic History Review, Vol. 41, 1988, s. 74-94. Go to original source...
    28. Dilnot, A. W. -Kay, J. - Morris, C. N. (1984): The Reform of Social Security. Oxford, Clarendon, 1984, s. 14-15, 28, 45 an.
    29. Dower, J. (1986): War WithoutMercy. London, Faber, 1986, s. 300 an.
    30. Eckstein, H. (1958): The English Health Service. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1958, s. 76-78
    31. Eder, N. R. (1982): National Health Insurance and the Medical Profession in Britain 1913-39. New York, Garland Pub., 1982.
    32. Ellwood, D. (1988): PoorSupport. NewYork, Basic Books, 1988, s. 6
    33. Esping-Andersen, G. (1990): The Three Worlds ofWelfare Capitalism. Cambridge, Polity, 1990
    34. Flora, P. - Heidenheimer, A. J. (eds.) (1981): The Development of Welfare States in Europe and in America. London, Transaction, 1981, s.19 an.
    35. Fraser, D. (1985): The Evolution of the British Welfare State. London, Macmillan, 1985, s. 214.
    36. Galbraith, J. K. (1994): The World Economy since the Wars. London, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1994, s. 157 an.
    37. George,V.-Wilding, P. (1985): Ideologyand Social Welfare. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985, s. 62
    38. Gilbert, M.(1990): Second World War. London, Fontana, 1990, s. 618, 635, 746 an.
    39. Gladstone, D. (1999): The Twentieth-Century Welfare State. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1999, s. 34- 40. Go to original source...
    40. Gorsky, M. a kol. (2002): The Financial Health of Voluntary Hospitals in Interwar Britain, in: Economic History Review, Vol. 55, 2002, s. 533-557 Go to original source...
    41. Gosden, P. (1976): Education in the Second World War. London, Methuen, 1976.
    42. Hannah, L. (1986): InventingRetirement. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986, s. 53 an.
    43. Harris, J. (1990): Society and State in the Twentieth-century Britain, in: Thompson, F. M. L. (ed.), The Cambridge Social History of Britain. Vol. 3, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, s. 67-68, 96 an.
    44. Hill, M. (1993): The Welfare State in Britain. A Political History since 1945. London, Edward Elgar, 1993, s. 42 an.
    45. Hoffman, J. D. (1964): The ConservativePartyin Opposition, 1945-1951.London, MacGibbon&Kee, 1964, s. 46,235
    46. Hogg, Q. (1947): The Case for Conservatism. London, Penguin Books, 1947, s. 113
    47. Honigsbaum, F. (1989): Health, Happiness and Security: the Creation of the National Health Service. London, Routledge, 1989
    48. Klein, R. (1995): The New Politics of the NHS. London, Longman, 1995
    49. Leventhal, F. M. (ed.), Twentieth-century Britain: An Encyclopedia. New York, Garland, 1995, s. 453
    50. Lewis, J. (1986): What Price Community Medicine? Brighton, Wheatsheaf, 1986
    51. Lowe, R. (1995): The Rediscovery of Poverty and the Creation of the Child Poverty Action Group, in: Contemporary Record, Vol. 9,1995, s. 602-637. Go to original source...
    52. Lowe, R. (2005): The Welfare State in Britain since 1945. New York, Palgrave, 2005, s. 181-183. Go to original source...
    53. Lowe, R. - Roberts, R. (1987): Sir Horace Wilson, 1900-1935, in: Historical Journal, Vol. 30, 1987, s. 655 an. Go to original source...
    54. Macmillan, H. (1969): Tides ofFortune, 1945-1955. London, Macmillan, 1969, s. 292, 294, 296.
    55. Macnicol, J. (1987): In Search ofthe Underclass, in: Journal ofSocial Policy, Vol. 16,1987, s. 293-318 Go to original source...
    56. Marshall, T. H. (1950): Citizenship and Social Class. Cambridge, University Press, 1950, s. 40 an.
    57. Marshall, T. H. (1975): SocialPolicy in the Twentieth Century. London, Hutchinson, 1975, s. 99 an.
    58. Marwick, A. (1968): Britain in the Century ofTotal War. London, The Bodley Head, 1968, s. 172 an.
    59. Mohan, J. - Gorsky, M. (2001): Don 't LookBack. London, Office of Health Economics, 2001, zvláště 3. kapitola.
    60. Morgan, A. (1992): Harold Wilson. London, Pluto Press, 1992, s. 163.
    61. Morgan, K. O. (1984): Labour in Power 1945-51. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984, s. 412^413.
    62. Nash, G. D. (1979): The Great Depression and World War II: Organising America, 1933-1945. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1979, s. 156-157
    63. Nicholas, H. G.(1951): The British General Election of 1950. London, Macmillan&Co., 1951, s. 4,9 an.
    64. Pater, J. E.(1981): The Making of the National Health Service. London, King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, 1981
    65. Pearce, M. - Stewart, G. (2002): British Political History 1867-2001. Democracy and Decline, London, Routledge, 2002, s. 439-40.
    66. Pelling, H. (1984): The Labour Governments, 1945-1951. London, Macmillan, 1984, s. 117-118 Go to original source...
    67. Pierson, C. (1998): Beyond the Welfare State?. Cambridge, Polity Press, 1998
    68. Pierson, P. (2001): The NewPolitics ofthe WelfareState. Oxford, OxfordUniversity Press, 2001, s. 455 an.
    69. Ponting, C. (1994): Churchill. London, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1994, s. 501-510
    70. Powell, M. - Hewitt, M. (2002): Welfare State and Welfare Change. Buckingham, Open University Press, 2002
    71. Prochaska, F. (1995): Royal Bounty: The Making of the Welfare Monarchy. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995, s. 234 an.
    72. Ranfurly, Countess of (1994): To War with Whitaker: The Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly, 1939-1945. London, Heinemann, 1994, s. 362 an.
    73. Richter, I. (1973): Political Purpose in Trade Unions. London, Allen and Unwin, 1973, s. 246 an.
    74. Silberman, C. E. (1985): A Certain People: American Jews and Their Lives Today. New York, Summit Books, 1985, s. 57 an.
    75. Simon, B. (1991): Education and the Social Order, 1940-1990. London, Lawrence & Wishart, 1991
    76. Snowman, D. (1968): USA: The Twentieth to Vietnam. London, Batsford, 1968, s. 179 an.
    77. Stevenson, J. (1984): British Society 1914-45. London, Penguin, 1984, s. 448 an.
    78. Strachey, J. (1944): Why You Should Be a Socialist. London, Gollancz, 1944, s. 66.
    79. Thane, P. (1982): The Foundations of the Welfare State. London, Longman, 1982, s. 255-256.
    80. The Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government (1961): Parliamentary Reform 1933-1960. London, Cassell, 1961, s. 5-6
    81. Thom, D. (1986): The 1944 Education Act: the 'art ofpossible'?, in: Smith, H. L. (ed.), War and Social Change. British Society in the Second World War, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1986, s. 101-128
    82. Walley, J. (1972): Social Security: Another British Failure? London, C. Knight, 1972, s. 69.
    83. Watkin, B. (1978): TheNational Health Service. London, Allen and Unwin, 1978
    84. Webster, C. (1999): TheHealth Servicessince the War. Vol. 1, London, H.M.S.O., 1999
    85. Weit-Wilson, J. (2000): States of Welfare, in: Social Policy and Administration, Vol. 34, 2000, s. 1-25 Go to original source...
    86. Welshman, J. (2000): Municipal Medicine. Oxford, Peter Lang, 2000.
    87. Whiteside, N. (1996): Creating the Welfare State in Britain, 1945-1960, in: Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 25, 1996, s. 83-103. Go to original source...
    88. Winter, J. (ed.) (1983): The Working Class in Modern British History. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983, s. 200-214 Go to original source...
    89. Worswick, G. D. N. - Ady, P. H. (1952): The British Economy 1945-1950. London, Clarendon Press, 1952, s. 30 an.
    90. Wybrow, R. J. (1989): Britain Speaks Out, 1937-1987: A Social History as Seen through the Gallup Data. London, Macmillan, 1989, zejména s. 25-26 Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content