scholarly journals ‘21st Century Welfare’ in Historical Perspective: Disciplinary Welfare in the Depression of the 1930s and Its Implications for Today

2020 ◽  
pp. 136078042093774
Author(s):  
Matthew Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Behavioural Regulation ◽  
The Unemployed

Since 2010, UK governments have intensified conditionality as part of a programme of ‘welfare reform’. Social scientists have undertaken much critical analysis but less attention has been paid to possible historical parallels. This article sheds new light on welfare reform through comparison with the depression of the 1930s. It undertakes a documentary analysis of policy in the 1930s informed by a governmentality perspective. In both periods, governments committed to liberal orthodoxies and feared the unemployed would become vulnerable to ‘demoralization’ and ‘dependency’; their behaviour and character were determinant of their rights to support. However, there are notable differences in what interventions have been considered appropriate. The article assesses the significance of continuities and contrasts, and argues in particular that the severity and ubiquity of behavioural regulation employed today is even greater than that seen in the ‘dark decade’ of the great depression.

Unemployment and fraud during the Great Depression in New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Radiah Othman ◽  
Rashid Ameer
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Extreme Condition ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The People ◽  
Financial Crimes ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
New Zealanders

Purpose This paper aims to provide a historical understanding of the unemployment context experienced by the New Zealand population during the Great Depression, which might have caused people to commit financial crimes, such as fraud, to survive. Design/methodology/approach The main source of information is narratives from newspaper articles published by 42 newspapers from 1931 to 1950 that explore New Zealanders’ experiences during declined economic conditions. Findings During the period studied, New Zealanders suffered because of various challenges, mainly unemployment. The government’s response was criticised by the people who used the newspapers as a medium to unleash their frustration about the fairness of unemployment relief for the unemployed and taxation of those who were employed. Some people who struggled in between jobs, as well as some who found themselves being disadvantaged, turned to deviant behaviour such as fraud. The fraudsters might be thought of as the victims of the day, committing a crime of survival, not a crime of choice. Research limitations/implications This research promotes more historical studies to enrich fraud-auditing literature. The lack of detailed information reported in the newspapers during this period limits making specific links to individual circumstances. Originality/value Fraudsters have always been perceived as responsible for their destinies, but a wider social and political context is rarely examined in fraud cases. The period chosen for this paper represents the extreme condition in which the elements of motive, opportunity and rationalisation are all interwoven into one.

scholarly journals Can We Rebuild the Economic Consensus?

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Yueh
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Great Crash ◽  
The 19Th Century

There are times in history when the consensus about our economic system breaks down. It happened after the Long Depression, also known as the Great Depression of the 19th century, and again in the 20th century around the Great Depression of 1929-1933, as well as after the Great Recession of 2008-2009 that followed the global financial crisis. The Covid-19 great crash, which carries the risk of a deep downturn, has led governments to take extraordinary measures in all areas of our lives. This has further fuelled the need to discuss how to rebuild the consensus about the most appropriate economic system for the 21st century as the great question of our time. This is a reflection piece invited for the Dahrendorf Symposium.

The American Dole: Unemployment Relief and the Welfare State in the Great Depression. By Jeff Singleton. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Pp. viii, 243. $72.95.

2003 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 290-291
Author(s):  
Robert K. Fleck
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Public Employment ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
History Of ◽  
The New Deal ◽  
The Welfare State

In this book, Jeff Singleton provides a detailed history of relief programs prior to and during the Great Depression. He also assesses the obstacles to welfare reform since the 1930s, and he generally argues for more reliance on social insurance and public employment as alternatives to means-tested welfare programs. The book will be of interest to scholars seeking to understand the details and evolution of relief institutions before and during the New Deal, as well as to those interested in the historical origins of modern policy.

scholarly journals Could the Great Depression Repeat Itself in the 21St Century?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quah Chee Heong ◽  
Mohd Nazari Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Financial Crises ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

By 2031, it will be a century since the Great Depression, touted as the most dreadful depression in the history of U.S. and the rest of the world, had taken place. In the final decades of last century and in the early years of this century, numerous financial crises and economic depressions, not as severe as the Depression, have occurred, particularly but not limited to, developing countries. Looking at the Depression and today’s arrangements, will a major global depression be looming? This paper begins with a refresher on the events of the Depression, which is followed by the Friedman and Schwartz hypothesis, criticisms against it, other contributing factors to the Depression, a reconciliation of the theories and finally ends with an assessment of the possibility of a return of the Depression in the 21st century based on today’s economic, financial, political, social, and technological considerations.  

The Memory of Financial Crises

2021 ◽  
pp. 18-38
Author(s):  
Youssef Cassis ◽  
Anna Knaps
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Financial Crises ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial System ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Preliminary Attempt ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

Are financial crises actually remembered—and if so, how and by whom? Surprisingly, there has hardly been any attempt to answer this question, whether by economists or historians or indeed other social scientists. And yet they are extremely important questions to address, if we want to understand not only the causes and consequences of financial crises, but more generally how the modern financial system has been shaped. This chapter is a preliminary attempt to answer these questions. This will be done in two steps: first by considering the notion of memory and the extent to which it can be used to in connection with financial crises; and second by providing some evidence, mostly drawn from the press, on the memory of the financial crises of the Great Depression, especially in connection with the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.

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