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Democracy and Demography: The Politics of Coalitions in the Making of the Welfare State

2008 Ford Scholars Project Description

Description of the Project:

Miriam Cohen, an American historian, and Michael Hanagan, a modern European historian, are completing the revision of a manuscript on a comparative history of the welfare state in England, France and the US, 1870-1950. This massive project is a history of income support programs such as old age pensions, unemployment insurance and family allowance, labor legislation regarding wages, hours and child labor, and the expansion of public secondary education in the three countries. It concentrates on the national histories, with particular attention paid to two cities in each of the three countries-London and Birmingham, England, Paris and St. Etienne, France, New York and Pittsburgh, USA.

While everywhere reformers sought to respond to the challenge of industrialization, in each country the challenge appeared in a different light.  For example, between 1870 and 1914, England faced a challenge of overpopulation, a perceived neo-Malthusian surplus of cheap labor.  At the same time, the U.S. needed cheap labor, a need that was filled by immigrants and former slaves. And France feared a future population decline.  Social reformers in all three countries sought to involve governments in solving these social problems.

In our manuscript, we emphasize how different demographic circumstances and political institutions in the three countries affected the development of state sponsored efforts to deal with the rise of industrialism.  In England, the fear of overpopulation produced a concern with unemployment and it is no accident that a democratizing England became the first nation in the world to introduce unemployment insurance.  In France, both secular radicals and religious conservatives could agree on the need to increase the population when they could agree on little else.  Concerns with population produced an effort to stimulate fertility and combat infant mortality.  France proved a pioneer in introducing family allowances but was among the last nations in Europe to introduce unemployment insurance.  Meanwhile the U.S. rallied behind slogans of equal opportunity and the need to Americanize immigrants.  The U.S. pioneered the expansion of secondary schooling designed to Americanize its diverse population but was late to introduce unemployment insurance and never adopted a policy of family insurance.


Anticipated Summer Activities:

This summer, we will be completing our final revision of the manuscript. We will need to add material, particularly for the chapters on France and late nineteenth-century U.K.  Our Ford Fellow will assist us in tracking down recent bibliography on the French and British welfare states.  Since demographic and labor force participation loom large in our argument, we would also like to put together graphs that lay out the major trends in mortality, schooling, fertility and, migration in the period and changes in gender, race, nationality and age-structure in 1910/11, 1930/31 and 1950/51.  We will need assistance tracking down some of this data. As importantly we need help constructing graphs based on material that we have already gathered.  Early on, we expect the Fellow to become familiar with the overall thrust of our analysis. We will meet regularly to discuss how the materials that are being gathered this summer fit into our overall analysis.  


Preferred Student Qualifications/Skills:

Some background in modern American and/or European history, or urban studies, international studies. Experience doing bibliographic work in the library, enough computer skills so that she/he can generate tables, and scan materials.

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for the Student:

The student will participate with us in a delivery of our work to an audience of Vassar faculty and students during the coming academic year.