William Henry Beveridge

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William H. Beveridge in 1943

William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge , KCB (born March 5, 1879 in Rangpur , Bengal , † March 16, 1963 in Oxford , England ) was a British economist and politician of the Liberal Party. From 1919 to 1937 he was director of the London School of Economics and Political Science .

Beveridge is best known for the Social Insurance and Allied Services report (better known as the Beveridge Report ) published in 1942 , which became the basis for building the social security systems in post-war Great Britain, particularly the National Health Service . His ideas had a great influence on the design of the social security systems in Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries. They are essentially a state-organized, egalitarian unified insurance funded from tax revenues that covers all citizens. The German welfare state, on the other hand, has its roots in Bismarck's social legislationgave its social institutions a different foundation of diverse, self-governing social insurance schemes. Their services are financed equally by employees and companies through contributions, the amount of which depends on income from work.

The Beveridge curve of economics, which compares the unemployment figures and the vacancies, is also named after Beveridge . In addition, the Beveridge model is understood to mean government-funded health care.

Beveridge's early career

William Beveridge was the eldest son of a judge for the Indian Civil Service , the Indian administration installed by the British. He was born in Rangpur on March 5, 1879. After completing his training at Charterhouse School and studying at Balliol College , Oxford, he became a lawyer. He was interested in social work and wrote for the Morning Post on the subject . As early as 1908 he was considered a leading expert on the subject of unemployment insurance . He became a member of the Board of Trade and contributed to the introduction of the national system of Labor Exchanges , local employment and social agencies (now Jobcenterplus ) in the United Kingdom. In 1909 he became director of Labor Exchanges. His ideas influenced David Lloyd George and led to the passage of the National Insurance Act in 1911. During the liberal government of Herbert Asquith (1908–1914), Beveridge was George's advisor on pension and social security issues.

During the First World War, Beveridge was engaged in the mobilization and control of labor. After the war he was knighted and made permanent secretary to the Ministry of Food. In 1919 Beveridge left civil service and became director of the London School of Economics (LSE). In the following years he was a member of various commissions and committees on social policy.

Beveridge was so strongly influenced by the socialists of the Fabian Society - especially Beatrice Potter Webb with whom he drew up the Poor Laws Report in 1909 - that he could well be counted among their members, among whom he might have been the best economist - his early work on unemployment (1909) and his extensive historical research on prices and wages (1939) testify to its scientific importance, as does his establishment and management of the International Scientific Committee for the History of Prices . The Fabians made him director of the LSE in 1919, a position he held until 1937. His constant skirmishes with Edwin Cannan and Lionel Robbins , who tried to wrest the LSE from its Fabian roots, are legendary today. In 1937 Beveridge was promoted to Master of University College, Oxford.

After learning how to deal with scientists on his way to Vienna through the German Reich in early 1933 , he founded the Academic Assistance Council (AAC; today Council for Assisting Refugee Academics ) together with Ernest Rutherford and Archibald Vivian Hill in April 1933 . The AAC (from 1935 Society for Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL)) made it easier for scientists who were expelled or persecuted in the German Reich to flee or emigrate. In 1937 he was elected a member of the British Academy .

The Beveridge Report

As early as 1940, Ernest Bevin commissioned Beveridge to examine the existing social security systems, which had proven increasingly unmanageable, and to submit suggestions for improvement. In 1941 the government commissioned a report on the reconstruction of Britain after the Second World War; it made sense to entrust it to Beveridge.

The Report to the Parliament on Social Insurance and Allied Services (known as the Beveridge Report ) was published by the British government on December 1, 1942. In the report, Beveridge suggested that all working-age residents should pay a weekly contribution to a "national insurance". In return, support should be given to the sick, unemployed, pensioners and widows. Beveridge wanted to secure a subsistence level for everyone. He recommended that the government should focus on combating the "five great evils" of hardship, disease, ignorance, misery and inaction. This led to the establishment of a modern welfare state with a national health service, the National Health Service (NHS) .

“19th Plan for social security: XI. Medical treatment covering all requirements will be provided for all citizens by a National Health Service organized under the health departments and post-medical rehabilitation treatment will be provided for all persons capable of profiting by it. "

"Medical treatment that meets all requirements is made available to all citizens by a national health service of the health authorities, everyone who benefits from this should benefit from medical aftercare and rehabilitation."

What made the report so remarkable was Beveridge's persuasive reasoning, which won his proposals wide approval among conservatives and other critics. Beveridge argued that the proposed charities would improve the competitiveness of UK industry in the post-war era by not only putting health care and pensions costs on the shoulders of the community, but also by providing a healthier, more affluent and therefore more motivated workforce, which would also increase the demand for British products. The National Health Service was established under Prime Minister Clement Attlee ( Labor Party ) in the late 1940s .

Beveridge saw full employment (which he defined as unemployment below 3%) as the goal of a social security system, as the Beveridge Report propagated. In his work Full Employment in a Free Society (1944) he explained how this goal could be achieved. These included fiscal regulation within the meaning of Keynes , direct control of workers and state control of the means of production . He was driven by the idea of social justice and the creation of an ideal new society after the war. He was convinced that social problems could be explained and solved with the help of objective socio-economic principles.

Beveridge's later career

After the report Full Employment in a Free Society appeared in 1944 , Beveridge, who had recently joined the Liberal Party , was elected to the House of Commons , where he represented Berwick-upon-Tweed .

In 1946 Beveridge was raised to hereditary nobility as Baron Beveridge , of Tuggal in the County of Northumberland , and later became leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords . Since he was childless, the title of nobility expired on his death.

Works

  • Unemployment: A problem of industry , 1909.
  • Prices and Wages in England from the Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century , 1939.
  • Social Insurance and Allied Services , 1942. (Beveridge Report) - excerpts (executive summary)
  • Full Employment in a Free Society , 1944.
  • The Economics of Full Employment , 1944.

Web links

Commons : William Beveridge  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • José Harris, William Beveridge. A Biography , Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997.
  • Julien Demade, Produire un fait scientifique. Beveridge et le Comité international d'histoire des prix , Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 2018.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die kleine Enzyklopädie , Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich 1950, Vol. 1, p. 172
  2. ↑ Julien Demade, Produire un fait scientifique. Beveridge et le Comité international d'histoire des prix , Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 2018.
  3. ^ History. cara1933.org, archived from the original on May 7, 2015 ; accessed on September 4, 2013 .
  4. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed May 4, 2020 .
  5. ^ The National Archives : The welfare state
personal data
SURNAME Beveridge, William Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beveridge, William Henry Beveridge 1st Baron (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British economist and Liberal Party politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Rangpur , Bengal
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1963
Place of death Oxford , England