The Politics of Pensions: A Comparative Analysis of Britain, Canada, and the United States, 1880-1940By offering a comparative, institutional analysis of how state-supported pensions for the elderly developed in Britain, Canada, and the United States, Ann Shola Orloff makes a profound contribution to understanding the growth of modern social welfare policies. It is not enough, Orloff demonstrates, to simply examine socioeconomic factors in the growth of the welfare state. She argues that welfare policies are shaped as well by the political institutions and processes that are the legacy of state formation and expansion in given nations. Orloff explains why, when, and how poor relief was replaced by modern social insurance legislation and pensions for the elderly in the first three decades of the twentieth century. She analyzes the long-term social and political transformations that laid the basis for modern social politics: the spread of waged work, the development of New Liberal ideologies, and the expansion and transformation of state administrative capacities. Combining original historical research with the analysis of secondary sources, Orloff's work is an excellent example of the use of comparative and historical methods to answer questions about macropolitical transformation, such as the origin of the welfare state. The Politics of Pensions outlines an original, interdisciplinary approach that will appeal to a wide variety of readers: political sociologists interested in the state, social workers and specialists in old age policy, and comparative researchers of all disciplines engaged in research on the welfare state. |
Contents
The Problem of Old Age and Modern Social Provision | 3 |
Explaining the Emergence of Modern Social Provision | 41 |
THE MAKING OF THE SOCIAL QUESTION | 93 |
Starting Point for Modern Social Policy Debates | 121 |
Labor Elites and Social Policy | 152 |
Introduction to Part 3 | 191 |
From the Great Barbeque to Modern | 215 |
From Elitist to Democratic Politics and New Social Provision | 240 |
Belated Breakthrough to Modern Social | 269 |
Conclusion | 299 |
| 315 | |
| 351 | |
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activities administration allowed American analysts argued assistance benefits Britain British Canada Canadian capacities capitalist century changes chap character charity civil service coalition Commission common comparative concerns contributions contributory countries demands democratic dependent early economic effect elderly electoral elites emerged enacted established existing fact factors families federal forces given groups House households ideological important increased industrial initiatives institutions interests labor leaders legislation less liberal living modern social nineteenth noted offered officials old age pensions organizations outdoor relief party patronage percent period political poor law poor relief popular population position poverty practices Press problems programs Progressive proportion proposals protection received reform relatively responsible Skocpol social insurance social policy social provision Social Security social spending society studies success tion turn unions United University welfare women workers working-class World York