When, Why, and Where Were the First Social Welfare Policies Launched?

Social Welfare -- Its Origins and Contributions

When did social welfare begin as a policy to help those who were struggling to find enough food, or suffering from a blight -- or otherwise in need of a lift from government? Why was social welfare initially launched -- and what groups or individuals were pivotal and ultimately influential as regards the social welfare movement? These questions will be addressed and critiqued in this paper utilizing the available scholarly literature.

When Social Welfare Began

Four hundred and eighty seven years ago in a section of Great Britain known as the East Anglian region, farmers were subjected to terrible crop failures -- due to pounding, unending rains -- and these conditions resulted in famine, according to a peer-reviewed article in Accounting History Review (Bisman, 2012). In response to this crisis in 1527, the British Crown appointed "commissioners" to conduct surveys of certain population groups within the famine area; the search included carefully inspecting any building or area where storage is done in order to verify that a serious lack of grain was indeed a reality (Bisman, 105). Known as "corn surveys," this research resulted in the commissioners giving out "corn certificates," which the local population that was most impacted received in order to be given surplus corn to keep people from starving (Bisman, 105). Because four hundred and eighty seven years have passed since that first known act of social welfare, there are not many records to account for the grain that was distributed to the needy; however one record, "Certificate of Sold and Unsold Corn," reflects the population and inventories of grain that were on hand -- as well as a thorough accounting of the "calculations of grain surpluses and deficits," which also illustrated a form of accounting that in fact is still used today (Bisman, 105-06).

Bisman makes a strong argument that by studying the documents from 1527, not only can researchers get a handle on how accounting practices emerged and evolved those many years ago, but a thorough study of these archives provides "untapped opportunities" to study public policy, which is the theme of this research paper (Bisman, 107). The decision-making strategies that were employed in 1527 as they relate to the "poor and disadvantaged," offer modern era students and researchers an opportunity to study the origins of "social change" (Bisman, 108). This look back in terms of how authorities and bureaucracies from the Tudor era responded to human tragedies like famine -- at the dawn of the age of social welfare -- is instructive for today's student because it provides perspective through the history of human needs (Bisman, 108).

Why Social Welfare Began

Just four years after the corn commissions launched what is believed to have been the first documented instance of social welfare, Henry VIII responded legislatively to the growing number of people bogged down in poverty in Great Britain (Handel, 2009). Because poverty was a scourge in that era, Henry VIII launched the Act of 1531, a program to register the poor and provide some form of sustenance to them through private contributions (Handel, 2009). The impetus for Henry VIII to begin this program came from sixteenth century "social welfare thinker," Juan Luis Vives, a Spaniard who was "one of the great thinkers of his day" and who held a lectureship in Britain at a time when the poor were "just beginning to emerge from a status only slightly superior to slavery," according to social welfare historian Karl de Schweinitz (quoted by Handel, 30). While Vives is not a household name for those studying the history of social welfare dynamics, his ability to think outside the box in the 16th century has led to the existence of many of the social welfare programs in place today.

A Swedish social welfare program that provided "universal home help to all older people" -- called Eldercare -- was established after World War II in order that older people could live in their "own homes" with full access to medical care (Gunnarsson, 2009). However, the social welfare policies have changed in Sweden -- and elsewhere -- with emphasis on "the right of the individual to receive municipal services" but only if a person's needs "cannot be met in any other way" (Gunnarsson, 253). Using the Swedish model as an example of changing government polices based on available resources, the Swedish Social Services Act of 1982 amounted to a cutback of services, and today, similar to cutbacks in welfare funding for the poor and underserved in the U.S. that occurred during the Reagan Administration and the Clinton Administration, just twenty percent of Swedish citizens over the age of 80 have home help today (compared with 34% in 1980) (Gunnarsson, 253). The bottom line is that while the majorities in legislative bodies swing from liberal to conservative like a political pendulum -- and conservatives are less likely to support social welfare programs -- it is also true that funds are not always available for social support within the coffers of federal governments

Meanwhile the Humphrey-Hawkins Act passed through the U.S. Congress -- and signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 -- served a social welfare purpose but was not a matter of doling out checks to low income citizens. The point of the Act was to have the federal government "…spend proactively to increase consumer demand," and in the process to give stimulus to the private sector in order to achieve "full employment for every able American" -- including African-Americans, who had high unemployment numbers and struggled to achieve middle class socioeconomic status (Aja, et al., 2013). What was not well-known about this legislation was they if the private sector failed to provide the jobs that are needed, then the public sector -- i.e., the federal government -- would "…take responsibility for providing the missing work" (Aja, 781). The fact is that Humphrey-Hawkins has not resulted in its intended outcome -- that African-Americans' and Latinos' unemployment rates could be dramatically reduced to be closer to Caucasians' rate of unemployment -- and today, according to Aja, the typical black and Latino family has about a nickel for every dollar in wealth "possessed by the typical white family" (783).