Welfare Policy in Britain

by Fawcett, Helen; Lowe, Rodney

• ISBN13: 9780333675137
• ISBN10: 0333675134
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The welfare state arouses controversy whether attention is focused on its recent past or future development. This volume draws together the latest historical research to address two key sets of questions. First, what is a welfare state and how can it best be analysed? Has analysis traditionally been too narrow? Should it be broadened to include, for instance, industrial relations, race and the philosophical debate over the definition of equality? Second, should not current policy be informed by a greater sense of history? The British welfare state was created because of the inability of the market in the 1930s to eradicate mass unemployment and poverty. Since the 1980s market forces have been reintroduced into centralised welfare provision because of the perceived failure of the state. Does policy have to turn full circle? Cannot constructive lessons be learnt from the past?

Author Biography

Helen Fawcett is Jean Monnet Fellow and Lecturer in European Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde David Gladstone is director of undergraduate programmes in Social Policy at the University of Bristol Jane Lewis is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Nottingham Rodney Lowe is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Bristol Paul Johnson is Reader in Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science John Macnicol is Reader in Social Policy at Royal Holloway, University of London Lord Plant is Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford Chris Pierson is Professor of Politics at the University of Nottingham Shamit Saggar is Senior Lecturer in Government at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London John Veit-Wilson is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of Northumbria and Visiting Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Table of Contents

Notes on the Contributors	vi
General Editor's Preface	viii
Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction: The Road from 1945	1	(17)
Rodney Lowe
Inequality, Redistribution and Living Standards in Britain since 1945	18	(16)
Paul Johnson
Renegotiating the Boundaries: Risk and Responsibility in Personal Welfare since 1945	34	(18)
David Gladstone
The Voluntary Sector and the State in Twentieth Century Britain	52	(17)
Jane Lewis
From `Problem Family' to `Underclass', 1945-95	69	(25)
John Macnicol
Democratic Socialism and Equality	94	(22)
Lord Plant
The National Assistance Board and the `Rediscovery' of Poverty	116	(42)
John Veit-Wilson
Jack Jones, the Social Contract and Social Policy 1970-4	158	(26)
Helen Fawcett
Immigration and Economics: The Politics of Race in the Postwar Period	184	(24)
Sahmit Saggar
The Welfare State: From Beveridge to Borrie	208	(17)
Chris Pierson
Index	225