Abstract
AbstractThe impact of war on the development of welfare states in the Western world has recently attracted growing attention (Castles, Journal of European Social Policy, 20, 91–101, 2010; Rehm, Risk Inequality and Welfare States. Social Policy Preferences, Development, and Dynamics. Cambridge University Press, 2016; Obinger et al., Warfare and Welfare. Military Conflict and Welfare State Development in Western Countries. Oxford University Press, 2018). The horrors caused by both world wars, military demobilisation, post-war economic and political crises and war-induced institutional transformations created a huge demand for social protection that states were well-placed to fill. This chapter examines the impact of both world wars on the development and reshaping of social policies in the Western world. The immense costs of mass warfare also led to the introduction of new taxes such as the income tax and massive tax hikes of existing taxes. These new revenue sources were not only needed to pay for the war debt, but also brought the fiscal resources to pay for newly introduced programmes such as unemployment insurance and for the extensions of existing welfare schemes. In addition to policy innovations and reforms, both world wars also led to institutional innovations such as the establishment of welfare ministries. By using a sample of twenty-one Western countries, we present social policy trends and developments during and in the short aftermath of World Wars I and II.
Highlights
The impact of war and other emergencies on the development of welfare states in the Western world has recently attracted growing attention (Castles 2010; Rehm 2016; Obinger et al 2018)
We discuss the effects of war on (1) welfare legislation and programme adoption, (2) fiscal policies and (3) state capacities. We demonstrate that both world wars unleashed a deep transformation of the welfare state
We show that the war-induced expansion of the welfare state had a strong and long-term impact on social spending, and on the public revenues needed to finance the growing welfare states
Summary
The impact of war and other emergencies on the development of welfare states in the Western world has recently attracted growing attention (Castles 2010; Rehm 2016; Obinger et al 2018). We discuss the effects of war on (1) welfare legislation and programme adoption, (2) fiscal policies and (3) state capacities. We demonstrate that both world wars unleashed a deep transformation of the welfare state. The immense costs of mass warfare led to the introduction of new taxes and massive hikes in existing taxes These new revenue sources were needed to finance the overall war effort and war debt, and generated revenues to finance welfare programmes such as unemployment insurance, family benefits and other social security schemes that were introduced to cope with the tremendous social needs generated by the horrors of war. Together with the destruction of the capital stock and private property caused by war and its aftershocks (hyperinflation), these effects had a massive and lasting impact on income distribution and social spending
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