The Crisis of the Welfare State

Bob Milward
Additional contact information
Bob Milward: University of Central Lancashire

Chapter 13 in Marxian Political Economy, 2000, pp 167-182 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The welfare state can be viewed as a large confidence trick perpetrated by the capitalist class, in collaboration with the state, to appease the growing demands of the working class, against the background of the rise in Fascism and Socialism in Europe during the interwar years, and the promises made to labour during the Second World War as part of the settlement with labour designed to produce a successful prosecution of the war. The confidence trick is that the state provides certain basic necessities for the working class that the capitalists either cannot provide, or are unwilling to undertake. These include a minimum payment for those whom the system is not able to employ and, therefore, form the reserve army of labour so essential to the workings of the capitalist system, and those who are no longer required for exploitation due to their age or incapacity. In addition, capital requires a fit and healthy workforce who are also well educated, thereby assisting in the production of social capital by maintaining a productive and malleable workforce. Therefore, rather than the individual capitalist providing these for those employed, the working class are taxed both on their income and their consumption and the state provides unemployment benefit, income support, state pensions, a national health service and state education. Yet, while the capitalist class gains the most from their provision, it is the working class that actually pays for such services.

Keywords: Welfare State; Full Employment; Capitalist Relation; Postwar Period; Interwar Period (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-28748-8_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230287488

DOI: 10.1057/9780230287488_13

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().