Was wondering if anyone here could shed some light or point my missus in the right direction. She is doing this course and these are her Coursework options:
- Discuss some of the factors which led to the emergence of the welfare state in the 1940s.
OR
- How have ideological politics about the role of the welfare state, during the Conservative Government 1979-1997, or New Labour since 1997, influenced the ways in which welfare is provided today?
NOTE: You should select either the Conservative Government 1979-1997 or New Labour since 1997 as the main period for your discussion.
lol… I know… but though was worth a shot in case someone has some ideas.
Question 1: should be easy to search out. Look back a bit further than the start of the first post war Labour Government and find out what they were discussing/propounding just before and during the war.
Easy done by checking out the lead characters of the first cabinet and things like the Fabian Society.
Most of the Welfare State stuff was worked out during the war, which they always believed (hoped?)would come to a victory for the good guys and had most of the policy in place before the first post war election. (Ithink that election manifesto is on line somewhere.)
A small plea. Don’t forget that the public lending libraries are still out there and free (ish). If you can find a qualified librarian in one of those, you’ll get pointed at information overkill.
Assuming the books have not been replaced to make room for renting stuff out to you.
I guess in question 2 you could concentrate on Thatcherism and it’s emphasis on individual self-reliance and it’s condemnation of the (labour/socialist implemented) welfare or ‘nanny’ state which the Thatcherites believed sapped peoples initiative. Under Thatcher those on unemployment and other benefits faced a stricter regimen regarding their efforts to find work or their entitlement to benefit - epitomised by Norman Tebbit’s message to the unemployed to ‘get on your bike’. You could also contrast Thatcherism with traditional ‘old tory’ conservatism which took a more paternalistic attitude to those on welfare.
-
Research the impact of the depression of the 1930’s on the lives of ordinary people, the sacrifices they had undergone during WWII and the desire to secure for the future a society where needs for education, health and general welfare were secured and thereby avoid the strife that allowed the rise of extremist right wing (and left wing) politics across Europe between 1917 and 1939.
-
This is a bit more complex, and a bit too much like what I do at work!
Having worked in a social security office for most of the 80’s there is plenty I could say, but I remember hearing David (two brains) Willetts, then a prominent advisor, and later a Tory front bencher, speak in 1989 about how benefits were not about keeping people alive, but allowing them to participate in democracy because democracy is not about how you vote, but about the choices you make about how you spend your money. If poor people had no money they could not participate in democracy! An extreme view, but the sort of thing some people in the Tory party clearly thought in the 80’s.
Labour doctrine since 1997 is founded on the principle that work is the best form of welfare and that the best way of keeping people out of poverty is to remove barriers that keep them out of work and make work pay. For example they have extended rights for disabled people to avoid discrimination in the workplace, created the minimum wage, tax credits to make work more attractive for poor families, and made various changes to enable/require older people to stay in work longer.
I would suggest that a good library with access to Government Green papers would be good. They are used by Government to set out the themes for their policies as a consultation exercise before legislating. The post 97 ones are probably on the internet.
See what I mean about information overkill?
There is enough meat in those subjects to write several books, on each.
On the other hand, if this is a few hundred words, they are probably just wanting to know that some research has been done and that a reasonable interpretation of circumstances and outcomes has been realised and presented.
jesus christ…great topic…
i feel like writing an essay and im not even in uni!!!:w00t:…
great read…
smiled:).
