THE WELFARE STATE IN BRITAIN: A Political History since 1945

by Michael Hill

The Welfare State in Britain presents a history of British social policy from the election of Clement Attlee to the fall of Margaret Thatcher. Michael Hill focuses upon the political processes which influenced the key reforms of the late 1940s, and the ways in which those reforms have subsequently been consolidated and undermined. He critically examines some of the theories drawn from political science which have been used to explain the growth of the welfare state in Britain. The so called 'crisis of the welfare state' that has dominated recent rhetoric is shown to have its origins in the very period when the welfare state was believed to have been created. Despite its importance for electoral politics, social policy is shown to have often been subordinate to economic and foreign policy. The book will be essential reading for all students of social welfare and social policy as well as the political history of Britain since 1945.

200 pages, Hardcover

First published April 12, 1993

About the author

Michael James Hill publishes as Michael^^Hill.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Welfare State in Britain is an academic work by Michael Hill, which attempts to chart social policy in Britain from Clement Attlee’s Labour government (1945-51) to Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government (1979-90). The book is read chronologically, guiding the reader through successive governments and their approaches to the welfare state. This may serve as the most practical and readable structure for readers with an in-depth (perhaps scholarly) knowledge of British politics, and likely facilitates its use as a reference-work rather well. However, I don’t think that enough context is provided in places, and in its current state I would have preferred a thematic structure. For instance, the fifth chapter, entitled ‘The Labour Governments 1964-70’, consists of a number of sections: ‘Introduction’; ‘Social Security – Back to Beveridge?’; ‘Housing’; ‘Education’; ‘Institutional Reform in Health and Social Services’; ‘The Community Development Project and the Inner Cities’, ending with a conclusion. Each chapter in The Welfare State in Britain adopts a similar structure, with the sections’ names of course being reworded to reflect the different focuses and achievements of the various governments. The result is that the National Health Service, for instance, may only appear each twenty or thirty pages when Hill returns to the relevant topic, necessitating a fair amount of flicking back and forth. It would have been much more readable, in my opinion, if a topic, e.g. education, was given its own chapter, in which the successive governments’ policies on that area were listed. Nevertheless, The Welfare State in Britain fulfils its purpose, and its 170 pages are certainly informative enough to warrant a read.