Social Theory and Social Welfare - Essay Example

SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIAL WELFARE Introduction: Liberalism, neo-liberalism, liberal government and social welfare measures are interlinked phenomena, which have been widely discussed and analyzed at the global level. Topic of this paper is “New Liberalism and an explanation why 1906-1914 liberal government has introduced social welfare measures”. This paper aims to discuss the given topic in the light of researchers’ findings and opinions of expert philosophers. Concept of liberalism is almost twenty years old and it is one of the catchiest phrases of political discussions or debates. Liberalism based on political theory that highlights democracy and other related ideas. It forms a structure of political matters, bureaucracies, rights of citizens, and phenomenon of capitalism. Liberalism has given rise to its different forms such as economists’ liberalism, classical liberalism, neo-liberalism, and new liberalism, which is also called as social liberalism1. New Liberalism: Thomas hill Green was the first man who thought to consider a crucial issue of inequality after liberals lost several seats in the disastrous elections of 1895. At that point, Thomas Hill Green and other leaders deeply analyze the need of new direction for self-help and protect failure of the party. Initially, it was discovered by the practitioners that liberals are unable to resolve newer issues of industrialization. Consequently, in late 1890s discussions and viewpoints of Rainbow circle members and other reputable politicians have given considerable justification for new liberal concepts2. New or social liberalism can be defined as the belief, which emphasized social justice. This type of liberalism identifies a lawful performance for the country that is dealing with socio-economic and political issues. For instance, unemployment, education and health care. Followers of new liberalism tend to focus on civil rights and freedom of citizens. Most of the capitalist world states have adopted social liberal policies mainly after World War II3. Researchers have underpinned that social justice liberalism highly valued political freedom particularly in their speeches and beliefs. Further, it was also viewed in the light of new liberalism that states should be left alone to make their decisions for running their own governmental systems without external interference. Along with the freedom of living and handling social systems of live, opposed militarism and the international free trade that can contribute to preserve peace and harmony in the country4. In addition, followers of new liberalism highlighted that in order to run and maintain state system according to new liberal perceptions; it should be committed that fair distribution of wealth and power shall be maintained. John Rawls revived that fairness should be visible in conditions for legitimacy as well as in conditions for valuable freedom. On the other hand, critics claim about the shortcomings of social liberalism, for which they point out that a commitment to freedom in politics along with equality that will ultimately accounts for over-concentration of power and wealth that will impose challenging threats to political freedom. However, literature shows that democracy tends to promote equality and distribution of power, which it consider significant for protecting liberty, particularly in context of active democracy. It is because new liberalism emphasize on public participation’s in decision making processes of the state5. Central objective of new liberalist revolves around freedom of citizens, but unlike economic and classical liberal they specifically focus to eliminate poverty, hunger, bad health, disability, illiteracy and unemployment from the society as these problems are getting worst. Researchers have found that the British Liberal Democrats are studied as followers of new liberalism. Further, it has been observed that the developmental progress of new liberalism was noticed in response to the issues of industrialization emerged in the mid of nineteenth century6. In addition, to understand new liberalism in profound manner it is can considered that major differences between new and classical liberalism should be noted down. Researchers have observed that difference between new and classical liberalism mainly highlights behaviours toward equilibrium between country intervention and free trade market. New or social liberal never doubted the importance of economies, which based on free markets. But, they simply tend to identify and understand valuable performance of state aiming to maintain supplementing market productivity. In contrast, classical liberals have always underpinned problematic issues concerning role of state in adjusting market. Moreover, present literature shows that in 1906 new liberalism became advanced and it had pursued great politicians of the time with the aim of eliminating all causes of discontent from society. Social Welfare Measures of Liberal Government 1906-1914: Recorded data shows that after general elections of 1906 in which British Liberal Party won approximately 400 seats, the liberal welfare reforms were passed. Liberal government of British had introduced a series of social welfare reform which included, The Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906, The Education Act, 1907, The Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, The Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, The Childrens Act, 1908, and The National Insurance Act, 1911. Additionally for unemployed citizens, the party introduced Labour Exchanges (1909) and for the improvement of employed individuals several other reforms were passed. Such as, Workmens Compensation Act, 1906, The Merchant Shipping Act, 1906, The Coal Mines Act, 1909, The Shops Act 1911 and The Minimum Wages Act, 19127. Development of new liberalism has played role for the establishment of above mentioned acts and social reforms aimed to improve almost of aspect of social life. As we have noted above that new liberalism targeted elimination of the causes of discontent from citizens life. Thus, it is easy to understand how central theme of new liberalism is interlinked with the social welfare measures adopted by Liberal Government. Charles Booth, the famous social researcher has noted during his investigation that poverty and low standard of living were two major causes behind most of the social welfare reforms introduced by the liberal government to achieve the targeted aims of new liberalism8. Another investigative study by Rowntree in York revealed that almost 28% population of the York was living in extreme poor condition. These two important research studies of the time evident that in the UK and the USA, most of the people were facing complexities due to poverty that did not let them meet demands of routine life. The changing economy was another big factor behind that led the leaders of new liberalism to make strategic policies and bring positive changes in the socio-economic environment. Intellectuals have suggested that before the concept of new liberalism it was thought that unemployment is the major cause behind poverty and hunger, but economic growth will contribute to resolve this issue. Unfortunately, The Great Depression of economic instability altered that perception because international competition created mass unemployment9. It is noteworthy, at that time individual charity and the workhouse could not contribute sufficiently to manage a great number of unemployed people in the state. Therefore, liberals intended to put efforts for making interventions on behalf of the unemployed citizens. In addition, some other scholars pinpoint that in late 19th century; Britain was no longer well-progressed industrial country and was going through economic crisis. It was predicted that if proper measures were not taken for improvement in health and educational sector then industrial power of Britain would be declining further. Also, it was noticed that liberal politicians of the UK considered the fact, when their competitors can effort to take measures for social welfare then why they cannot do likewise. This fact was to be considered because in 1906 there was already an old age pension system was working in Germany10. Furthermore, historical data revealed that Britain also faced problems of national security because since Boer War 1899, British government was facing threat due to poor army performances. Prior researches show that whenever young volunteers intended to rush into army services they were rejected for being unfit. British government worried about its future ability to defend itself against stronger powers. A committee of physical deterioration was developed and reforms like medical inspections of children in schools, free meals to children, training of mothers was recommended as important new liberal reforms11. Some other reasons included the concepts and viewpoints of new generation liberal politicians who focused on the responsibilities of the government to help needy people. With the growth of new liberals interventions David Lloyd and Winton Churchill were appointed for important positions, their appointments in new liberalism era clearly show as to why 1906-1914 liberal government introduced aforementioned social welfare measures. Both these individuals put outstanding efforts to break the barriers of socialism growth12. Conclusion: From the above discussion, it can be noted that concept of liberalism has been existing since many years, and there existed various forms of it. Concept of new liberalism based on elimination of disability, poverty and other social problems from the society. For achieving the designed goal of new liberals, liberal government introduced a variety of reforms addressing issues in different aspect of social life. BIBLIOGRAPHY Berry, J. The New Liberalism: The Rising Power of Citizen Groups. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1999. Clarke, J, A Cochrane, and C. Smart. Ideologies of welfare: From dreams to disillusion. London: Hutchinson, 1987. Hay, J. The origins of the liberal welfare reforms 1906-1914. London: Macmillan, 1983. Page, R, and R. Silburn. "British social welfare in the twentieth century." Palgrave Macmillan, 1999: 249–70. Ritter, A. Social welfare in Germany and Britain: Origins and Development. Oxford: Berg, 1986. Read More