Julian E. Zelizer
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150734
- eISBN:
- 9781400841899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150734.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter traces the history of U.S. public policy since 1978. It first considers the professional development of public historians before discussing the arguments that policy historians make ...
More
This chapter traces the history of U.S. public policy since 1978. It first considers the professional development of public historians before discussing the arguments that policy historians make regarding the value of their research to policymaking. In particular, it looks at the scholarship of university professors and describes five categories of historical research: Institutional and Cultural Persistence, Lost Alternatives, Historical Correctives, Political Culture, and Process Evolution. These categories of research offer work that is distinct from the emphasis of mainstream policy analysts and can provide guidance to policymakers without becoming advocates. The chapter situates recent research within these categories and explains their analytic value, arguing that historians should be speaking with greater authority in the world of governance so that policy history will not continue to be “Clio's lost tribe.”Less
This chapter traces the history of U.S. public policy since 1978. It first considers the professional development of public historians before discussing the arguments that policy historians make regarding the value of their research to policymaking. In particular, it looks at the scholarship of university professors and describes five categories of historical research: Institutional and Cultural Persistence, Lost Alternatives, Historical Correctives, Political Culture, and Process Evolution. These categories of research offer work that is distinct from the emphasis of mainstream policy analysts and can provide guidance to policymakers without becoming advocates. The chapter situates recent research within these categories and explains their analytic value, arguing that historians should be speaking with greater authority in the world of governance so that policy history will not continue to be “Clio's lost tribe.”
William J. Novak
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226277646
- eISBN:
- 9780226277813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226277813.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This chapter draws attention to the vital role of interdisciplinary perspectives in law, history, sociology, and political science in redirecting our understanding of the origins, development, and ...
More
This chapter draws attention to the vital role of interdisciplinary perspectives in law, history, sociology, and political science in redirecting our understanding of the origins, development, and nature of the American state. It highlights the particularly formative role of an emerging theoretical literature concerning the character of statecraft in modern democratic regimes. The paper begins with an acknowledgment of the difficulty of the state concept as articulated in the diverse contributions of American history, political sociology, and American Political Development. It goes on to question the predominance of the essentially bureaucratic and Weberian model of the state that has governed thinking about and controlled discussion of the American state for the last two generations. It concludes by using the interdisciplinary perspectives that have recently emerged in socio-legal studies in the United States to generate an alternative approach to American state development that takes account of the nature of democratic rule as well as the fungibility of the state/society boundary.Less
This chapter draws attention to the vital role of interdisciplinary perspectives in law, history, sociology, and political science in redirecting our understanding of the origins, development, and nature of the American state. It highlights the particularly formative role of an emerging theoretical literature concerning the character of statecraft in modern democratic regimes. The paper begins with an acknowledgment of the difficulty of the state concept as articulated in the diverse contributions of American history, political sociology, and American Political Development. It goes on to question the predominance of the essentially bureaucratic and Weberian model of the state that has governed thinking about and controlled discussion of the American state for the last two generations. It concludes by using the interdisciplinary perspectives that have recently emerged in socio-legal studies in the United States to generate an alternative approach to American state development that takes account of the nature of democratic rule as well as the fungibility of the state/society boundary.
Matt Grossmann
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199967834
- eISBN:
- 9780199370726
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199967834.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This book presents a new view of American policymaking, focusing on networks of actors responsible for policymaking. Policy change is not easily predictable from election results or public opinion ...
More
This book presents a new view of American policymaking, focusing on networks of actors responsible for policymaking. Policy change is not easily predictable from election results or public opinion because compromise and coalitions among individual actors make a difference in all three branches of government. The amount of government action, the issue content of policy changes, and the ideological direction of policy all depend on the joint actions of executive officials, legislators, and interest group leaders. The patterns of cooperation among policymakers and activists make each issue area and time period different from the others and undermine attempts to build an unchanging unified model of American policymaking. The project relies on a content analysis of 268 books and articles on the history of 14 different major policy areas over 60 years. The histories collectively uncover the 790 most significant policy enactments of the federal government and credit 1,306 specific actors for their role in policy change, along with more than 60 circumstantial factors. The book compiles and integrates these findings to assess the factors that drive policymaking.Less
This book presents a new view of American policymaking, focusing on networks of actors responsible for policymaking. Policy change is not easily predictable from election results or public opinion because compromise and coalitions among individual actors make a difference in all three branches of government. The amount of government action, the issue content of policy changes, and the ideological direction of policy all depend on the joint actions of executive officials, legislators, and interest group leaders. The patterns of cooperation among policymakers and activists make each issue area and time period different from the others and undermine attempts to build an unchanging unified model of American policymaking. The project relies on a content analysis of 268 books and articles on the history of 14 different major policy areas over 60 years. The histories collectively uncover the 790 most significant policy enactments of the federal government and credit 1,306 specific actors for their role in policy change, along with more than 60 circumstantial factors. The book compiles and integrates these findings to assess the factors that drive policymaking.
Matt Grossmann
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199967834
- eISBN:
- 9780199370726
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199967834.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
The chapter advocates the use of policy histories, scholarly accounts of the political activities surrounding American national policy in each issue area, for understanding policy change. The chapter ...
More
The chapter advocates the use of policy histories, scholarly accounts of the political activities surrounding American national policy in each issue area, for understanding policy change. The chapter explains the rationale and procedures for aggregating information from my 268 sources and detail the steps to create comprehensive data from narratives of policy development. To explain the methods, the chapter illustrates with data from one policy area: civil rights and liberties. The chapter reviews the times and places of civil rights policy change, the political circumstances reportedly relevant, and the actors credited for policy enactments. The chapter builds networks of actors credited with civil rights policy change, linking actors responsible for the same enactments, and demonstrate their use. The results show that many political circumstances and actors occasionally influence policy change. But even in civil rights—the issue area most associated with social movements and public mobilization—the internal machinations of government institutions and bargaining among traditional interest groups are the most commonly influential factors in policy change.Less
The chapter advocates the use of policy histories, scholarly accounts of the political activities surrounding American national policy in each issue area, for understanding policy change. The chapter explains the rationale and procedures for aggregating information from my 268 sources and detail the steps to create comprehensive data from narratives of policy development. To explain the methods, the chapter illustrates with data from one policy area: civil rights and liberties. The chapter reviews the times and places of civil rights policy change, the political circumstances reportedly relevant, and the actors credited for policy enactments. The chapter builds networks of actors credited with civil rights policy change, linking actors responsible for the same enactments, and demonstrate their use. The results show that many political circumstances and actors occasionally influence policy change. But even in civil rights—the issue area most associated with social movements and public mobilization—the internal machinations of government institutions and bargaining among traditional interest groups are the most commonly influential factors in policy change.
Brian J. Glenn and Steven M. Teles (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195373929
- eISBN:
- 9780199852291
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195373929.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
American political development (APD) is a core subfield in American political science, and focuses on political and policy history. For a variety of reasons, most of the focus in the twentieth ...
More
American political development (APD) is a core subfield in American political science, and focuses on political and policy history. For a variety of reasons, most of the focus in the twentieth century APD has been on liberal policymaking. Yet since the 1970s, conservatives have gradually assumed control over numerous federal policymaking institutions. This book offers an overview of the impact of conservatism on 20th-century American political development, locating its origins in the New Deal and then focusing on how conservatives acted within government once they began to achieve power in the late 1960s. The book is divided into three eras, and in each it focuses on three core issues: social security, the environment, and education. Throughout, the authors emphasize the ironic role of conservatism in the expansion of the American state. Scholars of the state have long focused on liberalism because liberals were the architects of state expansion. However, as conservatives increased their presence in the federal apparatus, they were frequently co-opted into maintaining of ever-expanding public fiscal and regulatory power. At times, conservatives also came to accept the existence of the liberal state, but attempted to use it to achieve conservative policy ends. Despite conservatives' power in US politics and governance, the American state remains gargantuan. As this book shows, the new right has not only helped shape the state, but has been shaped by it as well.Less
American political development (APD) is a core subfield in American political science, and focuses on political and policy history. For a variety of reasons, most of the focus in the twentieth century APD has been on liberal policymaking. Yet since the 1970s, conservatives have gradually assumed control over numerous federal policymaking institutions. This book offers an overview of the impact of conservatism on 20th-century American political development, locating its origins in the New Deal and then focusing on how conservatives acted within government once they began to achieve power in the late 1960s. The book is divided into three eras, and in each it focuses on three core issues: social security, the environment, and education. Throughout, the authors emphasize the ironic role of conservatism in the expansion of the American state. Scholars of the state have long focused on liberalism because liberals were the architects of state expansion. However, as conservatives increased their presence in the federal apparatus, they were frequently co-opted into maintaining of ever-expanding public fiscal and regulatory power. At times, conservatives also came to accept the existence of the liberal state, but attempted to use it to achieve conservative policy ends. Despite conservatives' power in US politics and governance, the American state remains gargantuan. As this book shows, the new right has not only helped shape the state, but has been shaped by it as well.
R.V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199474943
- eISBN:
- 9780199090891
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199474943.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Education
This book chronicles the history of education policymaking in India. The focus of the book is on the period from 1964 when the landmark Kothari Commission was constituted; however, to put the policy ...
More
This book chronicles the history of education policymaking in India. The focus of the book is on the period from 1964 when the landmark Kothari Commission was constituted; however, to put the policy developments in this period into perspective major developments since the Indian Education Commission (1882) have been touched upon. The distinctiveness of the book lies in the rare insights which come from the author’s experience of making policy at the state, national and international levels; it is also the first book on the making of Indian education policy which brings to bear on the narrative comparative and historical perspectives it, which pays attention to the process and politics of policymaking and the larger setting –the political and policy environment- in which policies were made at different points of time, which attempts to subject regulation of education to a systematic analyses the way regulation of utilities or business or environment had been, and integrates judicial policymaking with the making and implementation of education policies. In fact for the period subsequent to 1979, there have been articles- may be a book or two- on some aspects of these developments individually; however, there is no comprehensive narrative that covers developments as a whole and places them against the backdrop of national and global political, economic, and educational developments.Less
This book chronicles the history of education policymaking in India. The focus of the book is on the period from 1964 when the landmark Kothari Commission was constituted; however, to put the policy developments in this period into perspective major developments since the Indian Education Commission (1882) have been touched upon. The distinctiveness of the book lies in the rare insights which come from the author’s experience of making policy at the state, national and international levels; it is also the first book on the making of Indian education policy which brings to bear on the narrative comparative and historical perspectives it, which pays attention to the process and politics of policymaking and the larger setting –the political and policy environment- in which policies were made at different points of time, which attempts to subject regulation of education to a systematic analyses the way regulation of utilities or business or environment had been, and integrates judicial policymaking with the making and implementation of education policies. In fact for the period subsequent to 1979, there have been articles- may be a book or two- on some aspects of these developments individually; however, there is no comprehensive narrative that covers developments as a whole and places them against the backdrop of national and global political, economic, and educational developments.
Kingo Tamai
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861343666
- eISBN:
- 9781447301967
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861343666.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
This chapter examines the history of social policy making, focusing on the development of the social insurance schemes. The analysis focuses on four rough chronological periods: the pre-war period; ...
More
This chapter examines the history of social policy making, focusing on the development of the social insurance schemes. The analysis focuses on four rough chronological periods: the pre-war period; the 1940s to 1950s; the 1960s to the 1980s; and the 1990s to the present. The family and companies have played very important roles in welfare provision in the pre-war period in Japan. Although the state began to replace some of their functions after the end of the Second World War, it was impossible for it to ignore the roles of both the family and companies in establishing a new system of social security. The fact that the central government has taken into account the functions of the family and companies in developing the new system explains why the Japanese welfare system has become so complex.Less
This chapter examines the history of social policy making, focusing on the development of the social insurance schemes. The analysis focuses on four rough chronological periods: the pre-war period; the 1940s to 1950s; the 1960s to the 1980s; and the 1990s to the present. The family and companies have played very important roles in welfare provision in the pre-war period in Japan. Although the state began to replace some of their functions after the end of the Second World War, it was impossible for it to ignore the roles of both the family and companies in establishing a new system of social security. The fact that the central government has taken into account the functions of the family and companies in developing the new system explains why the Japanese welfare system has become so complex.
Jon Altman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781447312673
- eISBN:
- 9781447312703
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447312673.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This chapter does four things. First it provides a brief history of Australian Indigenous affairs in the modern policy era that began with a 1967 Constitutional Referendum. Second, it looks at ...
More
This chapter does four things. First it provides a brief history of Australian Indigenous affairs in the modern policy era that began with a 1967 Constitutional Referendum. Second, it looks at contemporary Indigenous policy, in particular so called ‘Closing the Gap’ strategies, and its unrelenting focus on convergence and structural adjustment based on Western economic institutions, norms and values as measured by statistical social indicators. Governments of all political persuasions and other powerful interests in Australian society favour such an approach. Next it outlines how this approach, increasingly based on paternalistic intervention is applied to remote living Indigenous peoples especially in the Northern Territory who are both more readily targeted owing to high state dependence and who are also most culturally different. Finally, alternatives better suited to the diversity of Indigenous circumstances and aspirations are outlined.Less
This chapter does four things. First it provides a brief history of Australian Indigenous affairs in the modern policy era that began with a 1967 Constitutional Referendum. Second, it looks at contemporary Indigenous policy, in particular so called ‘Closing the Gap’ strategies, and its unrelenting focus on convergence and structural adjustment based on Western economic institutions, norms and values as measured by statistical social indicators. Governments of all political persuasions and other powerful interests in Australian society favour such an approach. Next it outlines how this approach, increasingly based on paternalistic intervention is applied to remote living Indigenous peoples especially in the Northern Territory who are both more readily targeted owing to high state dependence and who are also most culturally different. Finally, alternatives better suited to the diversity of Indigenous circumstances and aspirations are outlined.
Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke and Jeffrey Gale Williamson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198753643
- eISBN:
- 9780191815232
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198753643.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Economic History, World Modern History
Ever since the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, industrialization has been the key to modern economic growth. The fact that modern industry originated in ...
More
Ever since the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, industrialization has been the key to modern economic growth. The fact that modern industry originated in Britain, and spread initially to northwestern Europe and North America, implied a dramatic divergence in living standards between the industrial North (or ‘West’) and a non-industrial, or even de-industrializing, South (or ‘Rest’). This nineteenth-century divergence, which had profound economic, military, and geopolitical implications, has been studied in great detail by many economists and historians. Today, this divergence between the ‘West’ and the ‘Rest’ is visibly unravelling, as economies in Asia, Latin America, and even Sub-Saharan Africa converge on the rich economies of Europe and North America. This phenomenon, which is set to define the twenty-first century, both economically and politically, has also been the subject of a considerable amount of research. Less appreciated, however, are the deep historical roots of this convergence process, and in particular of the spread of modern industry to the global periphery. This book fills this gap by providing a systematic, comparative, historical account of the spread of modern manufacturing beyond its traditional heartland, to Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, or what we call the poor periphery. It identifies the timing of this convergence (fastest in the inter-war and import-substituting post-Second World War years, not the more recent ‘miracle growth’ years), and identifies which driving forces were common to all periphery countries, and which were not.Less
Ever since the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, industrialization has been the key to modern economic growth. The fact that modern industry originated in Britain, and spread initially to northwestern Europe and North America, implied a dramatic divergence in living standards between the industrial North (or ‘West’) and a non-industrial, or even de-industrializing, South (or ‘Rest’). This nineteenth-century divergence, which had profound economic, military, and geopolitical implications, has been studied in great detail by many economists and historians. Today, this divergence between the ‘West’ and the ‘Rest’ is visibly unravelling, as economies in Asia, Latin America, and even Sub-Saharan Africa converge on the rich economies of Europe and North America. This phenomenon, which is set to define the twenty-first century, both economically and politically, has also been the subject of a considerable amount of research. Less appreciated, however, are the deep historical roots of this convergence process, and in particular of the spread of modern industry to the global periphery. This book fills this gap by providing a systematic, comparative, historical account of the spread of modern manufacturing beyond its traditional heartland, to Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, or what we call the poor periphery. It identifies the timing of this convergence (fastest in the inter-war and import-substituting post-Second World War years, not the more recent ‘miracle growth’ years), and identifies which driving forces were common to all periphery countries, and which were not.
Sohail Choudhry
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781447308713
- eISBN:
- 9781447312093
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447308713.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
This chapter begins with a discussion of the changing political discourse in Pakistan from the 1960s until today, concerning welfare that prioritized economic growth by way of creating infrastructure ...
More
This chapter begins with a discussion of the changing political discourse in Pakistan from the 1960s until today, concerning welfare that prioritized economic growth by way of creating infrastructure and incentivizing an import substitution industry. Alongside a discussion of the economic causes and context of poverty and public policy, this chapter reviews the psycho-social dimensions of poverty and shame in the time period under question. Poverty in Pakistan has often been seen as a problem of inequality of income and ineffective redistribution. However, the chapter argues that poverty discourses are equally influenced by prevalent power structures which have mostly favoured policies which encourage dependence over those promoting individual agency. While these policies have generated short-term popular support, they have also worked adversely to affect the capacities of the people in the long-term and have thus reduced social mobility in Pakistan.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of the changing political discourse in Pakistan from the 1960s until today, concerning welfare that prioritized economic growth by way of creating infrastructure and incentivizing an import substitution industry. Alongside a discussion of the economic causes and context of poverty and public policy, this chapter reviews the psycho-social dimensions of poverty and shame in the time period under question. Poverty in Pakistan has often been seen as a problem of inequality of income and ineffective redistribution. However, the chapter argues that poverty discourses are equally influenced by prevalent power structures which have mostly favoured policies which encourage dependence over those promoting individual agency. While these policies have generated short-term popular support, they have also worked adversely to affect the capacities of the people in the long-term and have thus reduced social mobility in Pakistan.
Sabina Donati (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804784511
- eISBN:
- 9780804787338
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784511.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State
“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State
J. R. McNeill
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199225996
- eISBN:
- 9780191863431
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199225996.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter discusses the emergence of environmental history, which developed in the context of the environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but ...
More
This chapter discusses the emergence of environmental history, which developed in the context of the environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but which has since evolved into a full-scale global crisis of climate change. Environmental history is ‘the history of the relationship between human societies and the rest of nature’. It includes three chief areas of inquiry: the study of material environmental history, political and policy-related environmental history, and a form of environmental history which concerns what humans have thought, believed, written, and more rarely, painted, sculpted, sung, or danced that deals with the relationship between society and nature. Since 1980, environmental history has come to flourish in many corners of the world, and scholars everywhere have found models, approaches, and perspectives rather different from those developed for the US context.Less
This chapter discusses the emergence of environmental history, which developed in the context of the environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but which has since evolved into a full-scale global crisis of climate change. Environmental history is ‘the history of the relationship between human societies and the rest of nature’. It includes three chief areas of inquiry: the study of material environmental history, political and policy-related environmental history, and a form of environmental history which concerns what humans have thought, believed, written, and more rarely, painted, sculpted, sung, or danced that deals with the relationship between society and nature. Since 1980, environmental history has come to flourish in many corners of the world, and scholars everywhere have found models, approaches, and perspectives rather different from those developed for the US context.
Gunther Hellmann, Andreas Fahrmeir, and Miloš Vec
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198783862
- eISBN:
- 9780191826511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198783862.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Using the 2015 European refugee crisis as a starting point, this chapter draws together the arguments developed in the volume: that foreign policy as boundary drawing is a fundamental political ...
More
Using the 2015 European refugee crisis as a starting point, this chapter draws together the arguments developed in the volume: that foreign policy as boundary drawing is a fundamental political practice which has shaped evolving “inter-national” (or “inter-communal”) political orders while being shaped by these evolving political orders at the same time; that plural boundaries whose hierarchy may be contested are the historical rule rather than the historical exception; that foreign policy actorhood at the collective and individual level displays complex patterns and developmental trajectories; and that these insights offer a prospect for a deeper understanding of foreign policy in the present as well as in the past by helping to overcome the “etatistic paradigm” and the ubiquitous “methodological nationalism” in history and the social sciences.Less
Using the 2015 European refugee crisis as a starting point, this chapter draws together the arguments developed in the volume: that foreign policy as boundary drawing is a fundamental political practice which has shaped evolving “inter-national” (or “inter-communal”) political orders while being shaped by these evolving political orders at the same time; that plural boundaries whose hierarchy may be contested are the historical rule rather than the historical exception; that foreign policy actorhood at the collective and individual level displays complex patterns and developmental trajectories; and that these insights offer a prospect for a deeper understanding of foreign policy in the present as well as in the past by helping to overcome the “etatistic paradigm” and the ubiquitous “methodological nationalism” in history and the social sciences.
Peter Sloman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- December 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198813262
- eISBN:
- 9780191851254
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198813262.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
The idea of a guaranteed minimum income has been central to British social policy debates for more than a century. Since the First World War, a variety of market economists, radical activists, and ...
More
The idea of a guaranteed minimum income has been central to British social policy debates for more than a century. Since the First World War, a variety of market economists, radical activists, and social reformers have emphasized the possibility of tackling poverty through direct cash transfers between the state and its citizens. As manufacturing employment has declined and wage inequality has grown since the 1970s, cash benefits and tax credits have become a major income source for millions of working-age households, including many low-paid workers with children. The nature and purpose of these transfer payments, however, remain highly contested. Conservative and New Labour governments have used in-work benefits and conditionality requirements to ‘activate’ the unemployed and reinforce the incentives to take low-paid work—an approach which has reached its apogee in Universal Credit. By contrast, a growing number of campaigners have argued that the challenge of providing economic security in an age of automation would be better met by paying a Universal Basic Income to all citizens. Transfer State provides the first detailed history of guaranteed income proposals in modern Britain, which brings together intellectual history and archival research to show how the vision of an integrated tax and benefit system has shaped UK public policy since 1918. The result is a major new analysis of the role of cash transfers in the British welfare state which sets Universal Credit in a historical perspective and examines the cultural and political barriers to a Universal Basic Income.Less
The idea of a guaranteed minimum income has been central to British social policy debates for more than a century. Since the First World War, a variety of market economists, radical activists, and social reformers have emphasized the possibility of tackling poverty through direct cash transfers between the state and its citizens. As manufacturing employment has declined and wage inequality has grown since the 1970s, cash benefits and tax credits have become a major income source for millions of working-age households, including many low-paid workers with children. The nature and purpose of these transfer payments, however, remain highly contested. Conservative and New Labour governments have used in-work benefits and conditionality requirements to ‘activate’ the unemployed and reinforce the incentives to take low-paid work—an approach which has reached its apogee in Universal Credit. By contrast, a growing number of campaigners have argued that the challenge of providing economic security in an age of automation would be better met by paying a Universal Basic Income to all citizens. Transfer State provides the first detailed history of guaranteed income proposals in modern Britain, which brings together intellectual history and archival research to show how the vision of an integrated tax and benefit system has shaped UK public policy since 1918. The result is a major new analysis of the role of cash transfers in the British welfare state which sets Universal Credit in a historical perspective and examines the cultural and political barriers to a Universal Basic Income.
C. Peter Timmer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198737407
- eISBN:
- 9780191800788
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198737407.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter speculates on the possible advantages to ‘backwardness’ in a poor country’s agricultural sector, based on early classroom exposure to Gerschenkron, plus later research and teaching ...
More
This chapter speculates on the possible advantages to ‘backwardness’ in a poor country’s agricultural sector, based on early classroom exposure to Gerschenkron, plus later research and teaching experiences using his perspective. There is some irony in the approach, as Gerschenkron largely dismissed agriculture as a dynamic source of change: rather, it was home to many of the barriers to rapid industrialization. But both early historical experience in Europe and subsequent records of economic development in ‘backward’countries reveals deep and extensive linkages between higher productivity in the agricultural sector and broader economic growth. Many of these linkages are connected to food security, which has turned out to be a critical base for both political stability and stable expectations among investors about the best destinations for their long-run capital. A stable food economy, usually based on a productive domestic agriculture, is the foundation for modern economic growth.Less
This chapter speculates on the possible advantages to ‘backwardness’ in a poor country’s agricultural sector, based on early classroom exposure to Gerschenkron, plus later research and teaching experiences using his perspective. There is some irony in the approach, as Gerschenkron largely dismissed agriculture as a dynamic source of change: rather, it was home to many of the barriers to rapid industrialization. But both early historical experience in Europe and subsequent records of economic development in ‘backward’countries reveals deep and extensive linkages between higher productivity in the agricultural sector and broader economic growth. Many of these linkages are connected to food security, which has turned out to be a critical base for both political stability and stable expectations among investors about the best destinations for their long-run capital. A stable food economy, usually based on a productive domestic agriculture, is the foundation for modern economic growth.
Susan D. Carle
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199945740
- eISBN:
- 9780199369843
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945740.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century, Social History
This book uncovers the forgotten contributions of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century national organizations—including the National Afro-American League, the National Afro-American ...
More
This book uncovers the forgotten contributions of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century national organizations—including the National Afro-American League, the National Afro-American Council, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and the Niagara Movement—in developing strategies for racial justice organizing, which they then passed on to the NAACP and the National Urban League. It tells the story of these organizations' leaders and motivations, the initiatives they undertook, and the ideas about law and racial justice activism they developed and passed on to future generations. In so doing it sheds new light on how these early origins helped set the path for twentieth-century legal civil rights activism in the United States. The book shows that, at an early foundational stage of national racial justice organizing, activists thought about civil and political rights and the social welfare and economic aspects of achieving racial justice as interrelated aspects of a comprehensive agenda. As the enormity and difficulty of the task became clearer with experience over time, organizations developed specializations in both issue areas and strategies. This tendency was unstable, however, and reflected pragmatic concerns rather than any deep ideological commitment to pursue some aspects of the racial justice agenda over others.Less
This book uncovers the forgotten contributions of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century national organizations—including the National Afro-American League, the National Afro-American Council, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and the Niagara Movement—in developing strategies for racial justice organizing, which they then passed on to the NAACP and the National Urban League. It tells the story of these organizations' leaders and motivations, the initiatives they undertook, and the ideas about law and racial justice activism they developed and passed on to future generations. In so doing it sheds new light on how these early origins helped set the path for twentieth-century legal civil rights activism in the United States. The book shows that, at an early foundational stage of national racial justice organizing, activists thought about civil and political rights and the social welfare and economic aspects of achieving racial justice as interrelated aspects of a comprehensive agenda. As the enormity and difficulty of the task became clearer with experience over time, organizations developed specializations in both issue areas and strategies. This tendency was unstable, however, and reflected pragmatic concerns rather than any deep ideological commitment to pursue some aspects of the racial justice agenda over others.
