Cross-posted from Labnet

LABOUR, SOCIAL POLICY, AND THE WELFARE STATE

IISG Publishers (Stichting beheer IISG) recently published: "Labour, Social Policy, and the Welfare State. Papers presented to the Ninth British-Dutch Conference on Labour History, Bergen 1994", edited by Ad Knotter, Bert Altena and Dirk Damsma.

This book examines the ambivalent historical relationship of the labour movement and the state in matters of social security and social policy. On the basis of historical research in Britain and the Netherlands, two basic premises about the development of European welfare states are being challenged: they developed slowly during the twentieth century, and mostly so in countries where the social democratic left has been a powerful political force. While it cannot be denied that their decisive development only started in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, it is argued that welfare states built upon older traditions of self help and social policy.
From its start the labour movement, especially the trade unions, aimed at the protection of workers against the risks of life and labour in industrial society. But if the labour movement tried to mitigate these risks, it was not generally inclined to look at the state as the guardian angel in social security. For different reasons working class organizations by no means supported national legislation in this field unanimously. Neither in Britain nor in the Netherlands the initiative for legislation came from social democratic parties. In both countries, trade unions which were able to offer their members insurances were reluctant to surrender this task to the state. As a consequence, it is argued that the role of the Labour Parties in the construction of welfare states in both countries is more complex than commonly assumed.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Part One. Origins: Self Help and Social Policy before the Welfare State

- Lex Heerma van Voss: The embarrassment of poverty. Why do the proverbial welfare states border on the North Sea? - John Belchem: Sectarianism, ethnicity and welfare. Collective mutuality amongst the Liverpool Irish - Elles Bulder: What is new about the welfare state? Old age, the family and poor relief in Britain and the Netherlands - John Benson: Coalminers and consumption. The Cannock Chase coalfield, 1893 and 1926

Part Two. Actors: Trade Unions, Social Policy and the State

- Marco H.D. van Leeuwen: Collective agreements, unions and welfare in the Netherlands, c. 1910-1960 - Ivo Kuijpers and Peter Schrage: Squaring the circle. Unemployment insurance in the Netherlands from wage bargaining instrument to compulsory legislation, 1861-1949 - Dave Lyddon: From unemployment benefit to redundancy pay. Trade unions, the state, and unemployment in the British car industry, 1911-1965 - Kazuko Fukasawa: From superannuation benefit to state old-age pensions. The development of the trade unionists' views - Arthur McIvor: State intervention and work intensification. The politics of occupational health and safety in the British cotton industry, c.1880-1914

Part Three. Results: Labour and State Welfare

- P. de Rooy: Great men and a single woman. Politics and social security in the Netherlands
- Christopher Nottingham: Labour's road to 1945. The Labour Party and social policy in Great Britain - W.R. Garside: Work or welfare? Government, trade unions and the labour market crisis in Britain, 1920-1939 - Sheila Blackburn: Women and the British welfare state since 1945

ISBN 90.6861.120.8, 200 pages, NLG 39.50

Quelle = Email <H-Soz-u-Kult>

From: "Seth Wigderson, U Maine Augusta" <SETHW@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>
Subject: Labnet: Book Announcement: LABOUR, SOCIAL POLICY, AND THE WELFARE STATE
Date: 01.11.1997

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