World war and welfare legislation in western countries
Date Issued
2019-12-31
Author(s)
Abstract
This article examines the impact of the two world wars on welfare legislation in 16 Western countries. We use Poisson regressions to test our hypothesis that war was a catalyst of welfare legislation especially in countries that were heavily exposed to the dreads of war. By welfare legislation we mean the inaugural adoption and major reforms across four programs (old age and disability benefits, sickness and maternity benefits, unemployment compensation, and family allowances). Our findings suggest that both world wars are key factors for explaining the timing of comprehensive welfare reforms and outweigh the significance other factors such as regime type or level of economic development.
Subjects
War
;
Welfare state
;
welfare legislation
;
social policy
Publisher
Sage
Institution
Type
journal article
Journal/Edited collection
Band
30
Issue
3
Start page
261
End page
274
Secondary publication
Yes
Document version
Postprint
Language
English
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World war and welfare legislation in western countries.pdf
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Format
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