(DEGREE LEVEL) INESTIGATING THE SOCIAL - Essay Example

26). The National Health Service (NHS) was created on 5 July 1948 (National Health Services). Aneurin Bevan, the Minister of Health in the 1940’s, is seen as the architect of NHS (Gorsky 2008, p.437, 452). As mentioned above, the World War II bombings by Germany mobilized several interest groups and connected them. World War II served as a stressor, whose effects were made public by the Beveridge Report. However, the factor that did not let the effect of this event fade was Bevan. Thus, the aim of this research is to look at how the factors mentioned above influenced the interest groups in forming NHS.

The Beveridge Report (Beveridge, 1942) is used to examine the ability of reports to shock their readers. This report was made with the purpose of evaluating the reconstruction needs which were caused by the 1940 bombings (Beveridge 1942, p. 5). Its advantage is that quantitative and objective data are presented. Observations were made in a natural environment. The report provides a background to the problem, indicating that reconstruction is only a part of the story and that more fundamental changes are required.

However, its weakness is that as in case of every other report, this too has its own agenda. The government commissioned this report, so one could easily assume that it was in government’s best interest to present a gloomy picture of the existing system to the public. Another source is the interview with Bevan from 1949 (2009). Though this source offers a firsthand insight into the needs that led to NHS, this source is also subjective. Bevan is seen as the architect of NHS, implying that he possessed the ins and outs of development of the Act on NHS, its passing and creation of NHS.

However, this interview is his personal view on events that happened in the 1940’s. Since he was a politician, his statements were designed to win over the voters by giving them