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“The Welfare state was not born it evolved”. How far do you agree with this interpretation with reference to welfare development between 1834 and 1951?

“The Welfare state was not born it evolved”. How far do you agree with this interpretation with reference to welfare development between 1834 and 1951?

It would not be correct to say that the Labour welfare reforms merely evolved or continued on from past Liberal policies, they may have developed Liberal ideas to some extent but to a drastic extent in which case you might conclude that the enormity of them and freshness tends to put across the idea that they were born. In the Labour manifesto they claim to create “a tremendous overhaul, a great programme of modernisation…of it homes, its factories and machinery, its schools and social services”. To some extent they achieved this though they still fell back on any Liberal inadequacies and kept the traditional class divide. In determining how radical the reforms were it is important to review how they tackled and approached Beveridge’s five Giants. Want, Disease, Ignorance, Idleness and Squalor compared to the Liberal...

Posted by: William Katz

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