Agents of Policy

Abstract

Interpretations of the motives for social policy at any time expose fundamental differences of view, as shown in Hay’s survey of the Liberal welfare reforms written for this series [48]. He summarises two major interpretations of social policy: the local and the international. Local explanations describe how policy arises out of specific political situations, such as the rise of New Liberalism in Britain before 1914. Policy may be decided through the accommodations between political elites or it may be a panicky response to sudden demands from potentially dangerous sections of the population. The history of social policy lends itself to intricate political analysis, and several accounts, notably those of Gilbert, Skidelsky and Morgan, reveal the complexity of such negotiations in the interwar years [40; 89; 75].