Social policy by other means? Mutual aid and the origins of the modern welfare state in Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Harris, Bernard (2018) Social policy by other means? Mutual aid and the origins of the modern welfare state in Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Journal of Policy History, 30 (2). pp. 202-235. ISSN 1528-4190 (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030618000052)

[thumbnail of Harris-JPH-2017-Mutual-aid-and-the-origins-of-the-modern-welfare-state-in-Britain]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Harris_JPH_2017_Mutual_aid_and_the_origins_of_the_modern_welfare_state_in_Britain.pdf
Accepted Author Manuscript
Download (8MB)| Preview

Abstract

During the last twenty years, several writers have drawn attention to the role played by friendly societies and other mutual-aid organisations in the development of Britain’s welfare state. Proponents of mutual aid have argued that these organisations were part of the rich associational culture of working-class life; that they represented a viable alternative to state welfare; and that they were eventually undermined by it. However, this paper highlights the challenges which these organisations were already facing towards the end of the nineteenth century as a result of changes in working-class culture and the rise of more commercial insurance agencies. It suggests that the rise of state welfare was not so much a cause of these difficulties as a response to them. It also examines the role which friendly societies played in the expansion of welfare services after 1914 and their attitude to calls for further expansion before 1945.

ORCID iDs

Harris, Bernard ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7118-1118;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)