Liberal Government 1906-1914 - Essay Example

Liberal Government (1906 - 1914) How effectively was the problem of poverty dealt Contents Introduction TheBackground Measures taken by the Liberal Government: A Welfare State Analysis of Effectiveness References Introduction The General Elections that were held in Britain in 1906 celebrated its centenary year in 2006. Although a number of historical events of historical significance exist, the General Elections of 1906 can be considered to be one of the most important happenings in British History. Even till today, the victory of the Liberal Party in 1906 elections is considered to be the most remarkable reversal of electoral trend. Along with few other notable modern elections, particularly the ones of 1945 and 1979; the general elections of 1906 joins the list of the events that are considered as the turning points in British politics. The Liberal Government came into existence in 1906 after a landslide victory over the conservatives. The Liberal government was led by Prime Minister, Henry Campbell Bannerman. The Liberal government passed various legislations once it came to power. All the legislations passed by the liberal government collectively came to be known as Liberal Reforms. The concept of 'new Liberalism' had begun to permeate through the party. The members unanimously began to promote appreciation of the interdependence and mutuality of modern society; collective action over individual action and sympathetic response to poverty. This report aims at enumerating the various liberal reforms that were outlined by the liberal government and its consequent impacts on people. The report in specific speaks about how the liberal government dealt with the problem of poverty. The liberal government went against the previously existing concept of Laissez Faire. The report also talks about how the new policies of the liberal government had an impact on the state of poverty. Solving the problem of poverty was a top priority objective of the liberal government. The report discusses the measures taken by the liberal government to tackle the problem. The Background The conservative party that was in power before the liberals took over passed several legislations for social reforms. Particularly the 'Employment of Children' act in 1905 and Unemployed Workman's Act in 1903 aimed at alleviating the distress of the unemployed poor and destitute children (learningcuve.gov, 2005). However most of these reforms were carried out on the scale of local authorities and not by the Government as such. The liberal party too; before 1906, had assumed a Laissez Fare system of governance, according to which people are responsible for their own welfare. According to the Laissez Fare, prevalent conditions of poverty and illness were due to the ill practices of people themselves. The government never accepted responsibility for the prevalent hardships. The poor were seen by the wealthy as an unfortunate but inevitable part of society (Lednum, 2006). Although there were some prevalent acts and regulations; on the whole; the state did not do much to alleviate the lives of the poor class of people in UK. For instance, if the bread earner of a particular family died, the entire family would be plunged to doom. However, the state would not take any measures to rehabilitate the kin of the dead (Lednum, 2006). The main role of the then government was just to maintain the law and protect the country from foreign invasions. It was in the late 19th century and early 20th century that, several representatives of the state began to feel the importance of the state taking measures to deal with the problem of poverty. Several reasons can be enumerated for the upsurge of the notion of collective action to tackle the problem of poverty. Primarily the upper class and the MPs of UK feared that Britain would decline as a world power if the prevalent conditions persisted. They realized that if UK had to remain as a world power; they needed to obtain higher levels of manufacturing productivity in the industries. Consequently to improve the quality, stronger and better qualified working class was needed. This prompted the state to work towards the upliftment of the people. Secondly, during the Boer War, UK experienced shortage of men to join the armed forces. Most of the men were rejected on medical basis (learningcurve.gov, 2005). This was a major eye opener for the state and they realized that they had to work towards the well being of its people. Another pressing reason, for the change in the outlook of the state was the growing popularity of the Labour Party. The labour party was then established and their policies for the welfare of the people won the support of several people across the country. These factors led to the rise of the 'New Liberalism'. In 1906, the liberal party with a new set of ideologies and motives won the general elections and took power. Several MPs of the liberal party such as Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, inspired new reforms and promoted the view that, the state had to take the responsibility and interfere in people's lives to overcome the problem of poverty. Measures taken by the Liberal Government: A Welfare State The concept of new liberalism is not as new as the new liberal party of 1906. In a similar effort to create a welfare state, one of the earliest attempts made in this direction were by Thomas Hill Green. Green was a British philosopher of the mid 19th century. He promoted the idea that, concepts such as free trade and absolute liberty were the bane of poverty. Exploitation was a consequent effect of free market and absolute liberty; which was permeating the entire society (liberalhistory.uk, nd). Green's ideology and measures were also adopted by the new liberal thinkers of 1906. The liberal party introduced old age plans, health and employment insurance, labour exchanges and new taxations. Several policies were introduced to rehabilitate the unemployed and kin of a deceased bread earner. One of the main changes brought in by the liberal government was the way taxes were collected. Until the liberal government came to power, taxes were seen as a necessary evil by people. The government too, did not have pre determined usage of the money obtained via taxes. However with the advent of the liberals, taxes got a new meaning. Taxes were levied mainly to provide rehabilitation for the distressed. The money levied via taxes, was spent by the government on implementation of the reforms. New taxes were introduced for this purpose. Taxes on vehicles, homes and income (in cases of above 5000) were levied from people. By this time the state intervention in the lives of people was well established. In 1908 Lloyd passed the 'National Insurance Act', which intended to create a national system of insurance for working people against illness and unemployment (politics.co.uk, 2005). All the wage earners of the state were required to pay a certain amount of their salaries to the government; and in return, workers were entitled to a level of free medical care and advice. In the vent of unemployment, the workers' needs would be taken care of by the government. The stress laid by the liberal government (1906 - 1914) was on all round development t and not just one sector. In 1906, children were provided with free school meals. The government realized that several ill - practices were the root cause of poverty. In 1908, 'Children and Young Person's Act' was introduced according to which, punishments would be imposed on parents if they ignored children (Mc Callum, 1963). Furthermore, according to the act, selling cigarettes or tobacco to children was declared crime. Juvenile courts were created for young offenders so that they need not go to adult courts or prisons (BBC, nd). In 1908, Herbert Henry Asquith, became the prime minister in 1908. He passed several acts to introduce welfare reforms. He introduced 'old - age pension' in 1908, according to which, elderly people, after retirement from work were provided some money to take care of themselves. Labour exchanges were set up in 1909 to help unemployed people find work (wikipedia, 2007). Many centers were established where prospective employees could post their job interests and employers would evaluate and employ them. Several such acts and legislations were introduced by the liberal government to overcome the problem of poverty to establish a welfare state. Analysis of Effectiveness To understand the level of effectiveness achieved by the liberal government (1906 - 1914), an analysis of the main motives and intentions behind the policies introduced by the liberal government needs to be made. The liberal government promoted the concept of a welfare state; which as opposed to the previously prevalent laissez faire system believed in the intervention of the state in the lives of the people. A welfare state aims at establishing a state with social services to protect the society's weakest members (Fred Argy, 2001). These services are thoroughly controlled and financed by the government. The liberal government aimed at addressing several problems. Firstly, many acts were introduced to address the problem of disease and overall health of the nation. Although the acts introduced highlighted the ill health of the people, it did nothing much to alleviate the problem. The medical requirements were too costly for most people to afford. The government did not do much to offer affordable treatment to all people. The National Insurance Act was another major act that aimed at addressing the nation's poverty. It provided health insurance for workers who earned less then 160 annually. However this act did not incorporate the worker's family. If the worker died, the entire family would be left in distress and the government did not do much in this direction. Although the liberal government enacted several laws and regulations, they were not made mandatory until much later. For instance, Schools Meals Act of 1906, was successful in increasing the number of poor children who were provided free meals from 3 million in 1906 to 14 million in 1914(liberalhistory.uk, nd); however this regulation was made mandatory only in 1914. Some acts introduced by the liberal government had certain inherent flaws in their implementation. For instance, the elderly were provided with the Old Age Pensions Act. However; only people above 70 years of age, qualified to receive the pension. However, the average life span of a working class adult was much shorter than 70 years at that time. Particularly the poor class had a lesser average life span and the pensions neither reached them nor their families. Despite certain drawbacks, the liberal government did make substantial attempts to carve inroads into the problem of poverty. Beyond anything else, the very fact that the liberal government took the responsibility upon its own shoulders and drafted several laws and policies to construct a welfare state suggests the success of the government. All their acts marked the acceptance of the New Liberalism that no matter how much one removed constraints upon individual liberty, there were some things that individuals could not accomplish by themselves (liberalhistory.uk, nd). The new liberalism; although different in several ways from the earlier form of liberalism and other notions, was still inherently 'liberal'. It changed the outlook of the responsibility of the government. For the first time the government made attempts to take full scale responsibility in ameliorating the lives of the poor and distressed. The introduction of acts such as old age pensions, national insurance, minimum wages for the miners, government grants for maternity and child welfare clinics, compulsory school meals, the establishment of labour exchanges, all paved way to a new form of governance. In conclusion, although the Liberal Government (1906-1914) helped to establish a state free of poverty, it by no means completed the complete transition. Undoubtedly the reforms introduced by the liberal government were radical and helped a lot of people who were on the verge of gloom, to establish a new hope. It can not be argued against the fact that most of these reforms were limited and failed to make true inroads into the problem of poverty. Nevertheless, the Liberal Reforms were stepping stones towards a true welfare state, a state free of poverty and exploitation. The era of the liberal government of 1906 also led to the inception of the notion of welfare state, the principles of which were upheld by several governments that followed. References (learningcurve.gov,2005),http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/britain1906to1918/g1/background.htm (Lednum, 2006), "The liberal reforms of 1906 1914", http://lednum.wordpress.com/2006/09/07/the-liberal-reforms-of-1906-1914/, 2006 (liberalhistory.uk, nd) http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.phpitem_id=42&item=history&PHPSESSID=32f74420ec33 R. B. McCallum, "The Liberal Party from Earl Grey to Asquith", 1963 (politics.co.uk, 2005), "Article on National Insurance", http://www.politics.co.uk/issuebrief/economy/taxation/national-insurance/national-insurance-$366601.htm (BBC, nd), http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/liberalreformsrev2.shtml Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_reforms, 2007 Fred Argy, The Liberal Economic Reforms of the Last Two Decades: A Review, British Journal of Public Administration 60 (3), 66-77, 2001 Read More