Lodemel, Ivar (1989) The quest for institutional welfare and the problem of the residuum: the case of income maintenance and personal social care policies in Norway and Britain 1946 to 1966. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Abstract
This study focusses on the relationship between social assistance and personal social services on the one hand and various forms of social insurance on the other hand. During the period the expressed objective was in both nations to replace the Poor Law with insurance, leaving only a small last resort assistance scheme. While Norway continued the pre-war practice of breaking down the Poor Law "from without" through the gradual extension of insurance, Britain attempted a more immediate transition through the creation of a universal National Insurance and a National Assistance freed from the cash-care multifunctional nature of the Poor Law. The comparison of the ensuing development rests on two postulates. First, Norwegian social insurance will be seen to have experienced a more favourable development in terms of coverage and levels of benefits. Second, in the case of assistance the Norwegian scheme covered a decreasing proportion of the population with a service bearing strong resemblance to those of the Poor Law. Britain, by contrast, experienced a growth in the number covered by assistance, in terms of numbers as well as need categories. The services obtained bear, however, less resemblance to the Poor Law compared to their Norwegian counterpart. For both nations it will be hypothesised that the scope and nature of assistance can be largely explained by the development of social insurance. The findings will be discussed in relation to Titmuss' models of welfare. The hypothesis is that while Norway on the whole has reached an income maintenance closer to the institutional model compared to Britain, a paradox emerges when we see that Norway also features a more residual assistance in comparison to services offered to equivalent groups in the UK. These findings are also discussed in relation to theories about the social division of welfare as well as different interpretations of determinants of welfare. The study is in two parts: Institutional and residual welfare. In the first we analyse first the emergence of the models of insurance in the two countries and, second, the 1946-1966 development of old age and disability pensions. The second part focusses on assistance and the changing nature of social work in the local authority personal social services.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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| Additional Information: | © 1989 Ivar Lodemel |
| Library of Congress subject classification: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain D History General and Old World > DL Northern Europe. Scandinavia H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) |
| Sets: | Departments > Social Policy Collections > Economists Online Collections > LSE History of Thought theses |
| URI: | http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/107 |
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