Beveridge and After

Abstract

For two or three decades after the Second World War discussion of the right to work and the organisation, conditions and rewards for employment slipped out of political debate. This was natural enough, for the depression of the 1920s and 1930s had been dissipated by the war, and economic growth, bringing jobs for nearly all who wanted them, continued into the 1970s. Furthermore, it was supposed that governments, following Keynesian precepts, would be able to avoid severe and protracted unemployment by balancing fluctuations in markets with public spending to maintain demand and secure jobs. Moreover, some old battles over working conditions and the organisation of industry seemed to have been won. Improvements in hours and pay and holidays were evident; wages councils were established for occupations where trade unions were weak; and some industries where relations between workers and employers had been particularly bad — notably the coal mines — had been ‘nationalised’ and came under the supposedly benevolent protection of the state.

Work is central to our lives … It is the heart of wealth and welfare.

(Commission on Social Justice)