Building the Welfare State in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This chapter examines early forms of governmental welfare and the differentiation between employment and other economic relationships. Before the welfare state, welfare had often been rudimentary and overwhelmingly reliant on local schemes and on some degree of self-subsistence, such as in the guild and parish systems, both located within an agricultural context. These forms could not accommodate the influx and concentration of large numbers of workers to cities and factories as a result of industrial employment. The social question was answered by industrialisation and the concomitant development of labour law and national welfare systems. The two processes also separated work and welfare from local contexts. In Germany, the social question concerned the maintenance or reinstatement of societal cohesion once a deeper awareness of class had challenged the political power of the elite. Bismarck’s welfare state was meant to keep the working class in check by improving some of their welfare conditions and establishing employment regulations while retaining existing political hierarchies and governance structures. In the UK, the social question revolved around balancing individual and collective responsibilities, where the ability to work and to draw welfare capacities from it reached tipping point. The workhouse first rendered welfare conditional on work; it was supplemented by legislation to improve the working conditions of certain labour market groups and to avoid the specific risks they faced. All in all, the state assumed some welfare responsibility at the local and national level and also created the conditions under which workers would improve their welfare capacities.