Beveridge began from society rather than from the economy: there are certain social goods that only the state can provide and enforce—by legislation, regulation and enforced coordination. Keynes starts from very different concerns, but their approaches dovetail: whereas Beveridge devoted his career to alleviating the social consequences of economic distortion, Keynes spent much of his adult life theorizing the necessary economic circumstances in which Beveridge’s policies could be applied to optimal effect.
