Beveridge and Social Security: An International Retrospective

The Beveridge Report of 1942 captured the public imagination with its principles of universal social insurance in Britain. Beveridge's idea was to use universal benefits to remove the poverty caused by certain contingencies, such as unemployment or disability. This book considers the influence of Beveridge's ideas on social security and argues that the reality, over the subsequent fifty years, has been very different from the principles and from the vision he expressed. The first group of papers in this volume examines the recommendations of the Beveridge Report, the concessions that were made before implementation was possible, and the history of the postwar social insurance system. His biographer, Jose Harris, explains how Beveridge's beliefs were formed in the years preceding the War. The important aspects of the social insurance system are considered in depth, such as the state pension, and the principle of flat-rate rather than means-tested benefits. The second group of papers deals with the adoption or dismissal of Beveridge's recommendations in several countries: Germany, Poland, Holland, Israel, Sweden, and Australia. The authors generally conclude that there has, in Britain, been a move away from universally available benefits to means-tested income support. Despite this, the editors argue that Beveridge's important legacy has been the notion of a national minimum income: a safety net covering all. This idea has substantial present-day relevance as the countries of the European Community debate the issue of political as well as economic convergence.