Year: 2008
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Given the longevity and vast institutional presence of welfare states in Europe, examining whether they can offer any lessons to the developing world is worthwhile.Clearly, lessons can take the form of negative warnings, as well as positive role models.Because social policy can refer to both government actions and the study of those actions, however, two types of possible lessons exist: (a) models of social policy action to follow or avoid and (b) forms of social policy analysis that help address emerging social problems.In an earlier survey titled "Social Security in Developed Countries: Are There Lessons for Developing Countries?"Atkinson and Hills (1991) concluded that few lessons can be drawn concerning policy recommendations, but many arise on the methods of social policy analysis.This chapter adopts that general perspective.The origins of European social policy are diffi cult to identify.In the United Kingdom, modern social policy can perhaps be dated from the New Poor Law Act of 1834 and the 1842 Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (Chadwick 1965(Chadwick [1842]]).State intervention in education and social security came much later.The Prussian state introduced compulsory education earlier, and in 1883, Otto von Bismarck introduced the world's fi rst health insurance program, followed by old-age pensions in 1889.Before the onset of World War I, the United 39
Author: Ian Gough
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2169969342