Creating Social Europe II

Foundations of state welfare in nineteenth century Europe

Industrialisation: UK, Germany France

• Slow in UK: fast in Germany, partial in France (north-east)

• More reliance on wage labour• Growth of voluntary / compulsory

collective protection – Mutual aid (France)– Insurance principle (Germany and UK)

• Some agencies more acceptable than others (trade unions)

Helping the poor

• German and British poor laws: late C19th

– German: from paternalism to scientific rationalism: educate the poor: Elberfeld system (investigation).

– UK: New Poor Law: foster self sufficiency via punishment: workhouse test + no out relief.

– Both supplement with charity (some religious)

• France: no national system: charitable relief– Social Catholicism: RC paternalism (employers)– Republican Solidarism: repayment of social debt.

German Hilfenkassen

• Derived from guild-based, journeymen’s provident funds

• 1845 Prussia introduces compulsion– All workers in trade must join– State supervision and model rules– Duty of relief falls first on corporation, second on poor

law• 1849 legislation for factory workers (textile, iron

and steel)– Communes empowered to set up compulsory

provident funds– Supplemented by local provident funds

German Hilfenkassen II

• 1850s – provident funds expand

• 1860s – SPD and liberal trade unions create mutual benefit funds

• [1866 – North German confederation founded: introduction of Reichstag]– 1876 Trade union funds must match

payments of provident funds– Sickness and death only (no strike pay)

France: ‘mutuelles’ v. ‘syndicats’

• [1791 – Le Chapelier law passed]• 1852 Napoleon III legalises mutuelles

– Rules centrally registered, voluntary membership

– Run by local ‘notables’ – Funded by contributions, legacies and gifts– Casework (family) based– Wide range of help available

• Despised by trade unionists (anti-welfare)

France mutuality: reform

• 1872 birth of Third Republic• 1884 trade unions legalised• 1898 mutuelles reformed (anti-RC Church)

– Councils are elected– Self-governing and autonomous

• Rejection of insurance principle in favour of social solidarity (‘solidarité’)

• Rejection of central control (community-based mutuality)

UK: friendly societies and trade unions

• Friendly societies– Date back to late 18th century– Voluntary, democratic, selective, contribution-

funded and autonomous– Initially religious and local, by late 19th

century, dominated by large national ‘orders’.

• Friendly Society Acts register rules• Close association with trade unions• Based on insurance principles (actuarial)

Conclusions: the ambiguous position of trades unions

• Most unionists are skilled workers• France: revolutionary syndicalism has no truck

with capitalism (or mutuality)• UK: trade unions start as friendly societies

– Friendly Society of Ironfounders (1834)– Amalgamated Society of Engineers (1852)

Sick, unemployment, invalidity & strike pay• German trade unions (liberal and SPD) – use of

social benefits to build a power base

Conclusions II: the insurance syndrome

• France: reform of mutuality = rejection of absolutism (Napoleon III & Prussian precedent) and insurance principle.

• UK: liberal independence of working class movement increases interest in insurance

• Germany: the first experiments in compulsory insurance

Conclusions III: the shift to a social policy

• In all three states, evidence of state interest in fostering collective mutuality

• In all three states, this requires modifying established practices– To distinguish ‘acceptable’ forms of mutual aid– To discourage / outlaw strike action (German

anti-trade union legislation in early 1880s)

• Mutual aid forms the roots for state welfare