British Liberalism and the Idea of Social Justice

Abstract

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL IDEAS played a peculiarly important part in shaping British institutions in the century between Waterloo and the Great War of 1914. The utilitarian theories of Jeremy Bentham and his Radical followers, the free trade doctrines promoted by Richard Cobden and the Anti-Corn Law League, the evolutionary socialism of Sidney Webb and the Fabian Society are classic examples of concepts which profoundly affected the course of British history, and which cannot be explained in purely material terms. The current fashion may be to emphasize the interplay of economic interests represented in parliament and consider reform legislation in terms of the pressure of special groups, but the great debates in the Commons and in the country were held in terms of the basic principles of government. Economic interest was a factor that only the blind could fail to recognize; but the great reforms which moulded British institutions into their present shape can be understood only in connection with the general ideas from which they grew. The influence of theory on politics was particularly significant in the early years of the twentieth century, when the great social reforms of the Liberal party laid the foundations of a new-and yet thoroughly British-social unity, the strength of which was tested in the first world war and in the great depression, and won universal admiration after the military collapse of Dunkirk. Between 1906 and 1911 as much important legislation was placed upon the statute books as in the six years from 1832 to 1837. Among the more significant laws were the Trade Disputes Act and the Workman's Compensation Act of 1906, the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908, the Labor Exchange Act, the Children's Act and the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909, and the National Insurance Act of 1911. Although this mass of detailed social legislation was put into effect piece-meal, it was the coherent result of years of discussion and agitation. It was based on a considered view of the State and society. The laws have been described many times, and the circumstances of their passage are recorded in detail. Yet, curiously enough, little effort has been made to connect social reform with the acceptance of new political ideas.'