Hostname: page-component-5d84bcc8dc-dtcmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-09-08T18:31:37.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

World Wars and the Establishment of Welfare Ministries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2023

Klaus Petersen Open the ORCID record for Klaus Petersen [Opens in a new window] ,
Carina Schmitt Open the ORCID record for Carina Schmitt [Opens in a new window]  and
Herbert Obinger Open the ORCID record for Herbert Obinger [Opens in a new window]
Klaus Petersen*
Affiliation:
Danish Centre for Welfare Studies, Syddansk Universitet, Odense M, Denmark
Carina Schmitt
Affiliation:
University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany
Herbert Obinger
Affiliation:
University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
*
*Corresponding author. Email: klaus.petersen@sdu.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Welfare ministries are key institutions of modern nation-states. However, we still lack knowledge about when and why national welfare ministries were established. In this paper, we argue that both the First and Second world wars were major driving forces behind the establishment of independent welfare ministries. To test our argument, we introduce a novel dataset on the establishment of welfare-related ministries in 30 countries. Our empirical findings suggest that the establishment of independent welfare ministries was a product of wartime turbulence and the political, economic and social shockwaves set off especially by World War I, which affected many countries at the same time. Considering alternative explanations such as the Spanish Flu, the Bolshevik Revolution or the emergence of new nation-states, we argue that war triggered multiple, interrelated and chronologically staggered transnational events and transformations that had major effects on the social welfare systems of the countries involved. In this light, we conclude that World War I was ultimately the root cause behind the establishment of welfare ministries.

Keywords

welfare statewarwelfare ministrieshistorypublic policybureaucracyN3 History of Welfare

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , Winter 2023 , pp. 543 - 564
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Social Science History Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Amenta, Edwin, and Carruthers, Bruce G. (1988) “The formative years of U.S. social spending policies: Theories of the welfare state and the American states during the Great Depression.” American Sociological Review 53 (5): 661–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersson, Per F., and Brambor, Thomas (2019) Financing the State: Government Tax Revenue from 1800 to 2012. Version 2.0. Lund: Lund University.Google Scholar
Antonsen, Bo (2001) “Socialministeriets historie,” in Henrik Petersen, Jørn (ed.) Socialministeriet, Festskrift i anledning af Socialministeriets 75 års jubilæum 2001. Copenhagen: Ministry of Social Affairs: 81–92.Google Scholar
Aklin, Michaël, and Urpelainen, Johannes (2014) “The global spread of environmental ministries: domestic-international interactions.” International Studies Quarterly 58 (4): 764–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alber, Jens (1982) Von Armenhaus zum Wohlfahrtsstaat: Analysen zur Entwicklung der Sozialversicherung in Westeuropa. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.Google Scholar
Bargeton, Maurice, and Ziegler, Albert (1971) “Historique des ministéres sociaux.” Revue Francais des Affaires Sociales (1): 59–196.Google Scholar
Blondel, Jean, and Thiébault, Jean-Louis, eds. (1991) The Profession of Government Minister in Western Europe. Basingstoke & London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blondel, Jean, and Cotta, Maurizio, eds. (2000) The Nature of Party Government. A Comparative European Perspective. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brambor, Thomas, Lindvall, Johannes, and Stjernquist, Annika (2017) The Ideology of Heads of Government, 1870–2012, Version 1.5. Lund: Department of Political Science, Lund University.Google Scholar
Bullock, Charles J. (1917) “Conscription of income.” The North American Review 205 (739): 895–904.Google Scholar
Carter, David B., and Signorino, Curtis S. (2010) “Back to the future: modeling time dependence in binary data.” Political Analysis 18 (3): 271–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coppedge, Michael et al. (2020) V-Dem Codebook V10 (March 20, 2020). V-Dem Codebook v10 Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3557877.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeViney, Stanley (1983) “Characteristics of the state and the expansion of public social expenditures,” in Tomasson, Richard F. (ed.) Comparative Social Research, Vol. 6 (The Welfare State 1883–1983). Greenwich, CT: Jai Press: 151–73.Google Scholar
Drolet, Godias J. (1945) “World War I and tuberculosis: a statistical summary and review.” American Journal of Public Health 35 (7): 689–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elias, Norbert (1982 [1939]) The Civilizing Process. Vol. 2: State Formation and Civilization. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Flora, Peter, and Alber, Jens (1981) “The historical core and the changing boundaries of the welfare state,” in Flora, Peter and Heidenheimer, Arnold J. (eds.) The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America. New Brunswick: Transaction Books: 17–34.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Sheila (2008) The Russian Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gerwarth, Robert, and Horne, John (2012) “Bolshevism as Fantasy: Fear of Revolution and Counter-Revolutionary Violence, 1917–1923,” in Gerwarth, Robert and Horne, John (eds.) War in Peace: Paramilitary Violence in Europe after the Great War. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 40–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutheil-Knopp-Kirchwald, Carl (1998) Vom K.K. Ministerium für Soziale Fürsorge zum Bundesministerium für Soziale Verwaltung: die Errichtung des Österreichischen Sozialministeriums. Wien: Verlag Ed. Präsens.Google Scholar
Hartrodt, Georg (1926) Das Reicharbeitsministerium, seine Entstehung, sein Aufgabenkreis und seine Organisation. Berlin: [Publisher unknown]Google Scholar
Heclo, Hugh (1974) Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden: From Relief to Income Maintenance. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hintze, Otto (1906) Staatsverfassung und Heeresverfassung. Dresden: Zahn & Jaensch.Google Scholar
Holquist, Peter (2017) “The Russian Revolution as continuum and context and yes, as revolution: Reflections on recent anglophone scholarship of the Russian Revolution.” Cahiers du Monde Russe 58 (1–2): 79–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jang, Yong Suk (2000) “The worldwide founding of ministries of science and technology, 1950–1990.” Sociological Perspectives 43 (2): 247–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamradt-Scott, Adam (2012) “Changing perceptions: of pandemic influenza and public health responses.” American Journal of Public Health 102 (1): 90–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kern, Kristine, Jörgens, Helge, and Jänicke, Martin (2001) “The diffusion of environmental policy innovations: a contribution to the globalisation of environmental policy.” Discussion Papers FS II 01-302. Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung: 1–25.Google Scholar
Kettl, Donald F. (2006) “Public bureaucracies,” in Binder, Sarah A., Rhodes, R. A.W., and Rockman, Bert (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 366–84.Google Scholar
Kim, Young Soo (1996) The Expansion of Ministries in Modern Nation-States, PhD diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Kiser, Edgar, and Linton, April (2001) “Determinants of the growth of the state: war and taxation in Early Modern France and England.” Social Forces 80 (2): 411–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klausen, Jytte (1998) War and Welfare. Europe and the United States, 1945 to the Present. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Kott, Sandrine, and Droux, Joëlle, eds. (2013) Globalizing Social Rights: The International Labor Organizations and Beyond. Geneva: ILO.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundqvist, Åsa, and Petersen, Klaus, eds. (2010) In Experts We Trust. Knowledge, Politics and Bureaucracy in Nordic Welfare States. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark.Google Scholar
Maddison Project Database (2018). Bolt, Jutta, Robert Inklaar, Herman de Jong and Jan Luiten van Zanden, Rebasing “Maddison”: New income comparisons and the shape of long-run economic development.Google Scholar
Marquez, Patricio V., and Joly, Daniel T. (1986) “A historical overview of the ministries of health and the medical programs of the social security systems in Latin America.” Journal of Public Health Policy 7 (3): 378–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, Monty G., Robert Gurr, T., and Jaggers, Keith (2014) Polity IV project. Political regime characteristics and transitions, 1800–2012, Dataset Users’ Manual. College Park, MD: Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (INSCR) Program and Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM).Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., Boli, John, Thomas, George M., and Ramirez, Francisco O. (1997) “World society and the nation-state.” American Journal of Sociology 103 (1): 144–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obinger, Herbert, and Petersen, Klaus (2017) “Mass warfare and the welfare state – Causal mechanisms and effects.” British Journal of Political Science 47 (1): 203–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obinger, Herbert, and Schmitt, Carina (2018) “The impact of the Second World War on postwar social spending.” European Journal of Political Research 57 (2): 496–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obinger, Herbert, Petersen, Klaus, and Starke, Peter, eds. (2018) Warfare and Welfare. Military Conflict and Welfare State Development in Western Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Obinger, Herbert (2021) “Social expenditure and welfare state financing,” in Daniel Béland, Kimberly J. Morgan, Herbert Obinger, and Pierson, Christopher (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 453–72.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul (2005) “The study of policy development.” Journal of Policy History 17 (1): 34–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, Bruce D. (1994) War and the Rise of the State. The Military Foundations of Modern Politics. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, Magnus B., and Knutsen, Carl H. (2020) “Reforming to survive: the Bolsjevik origins of social policies.” Unpublished Paper: www.researchgate.net/publication/333668227_Reforming_to_SurviveThe_Bolshevik_Origins_of_Social_Policies.Google Scholar
Rehm, Philipp (2016) Risk Inequality and Welfare States. Social Policy Preferences, Development, and Dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, Geoffrey (2005) Black November: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic in New Zealand. Christchurch: University of Canterbury Press.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard (1976) “On the priorities of government: a developmental analysis of public policies.” European Journal of Political Research 4 (3): 247–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, Richard (1987) Ministers and Ministries: A Functional Analysis. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Russell, Rachael Joyce (2015) “Constructing Global Womanhood: Women’s International Non-Governmental Organizations, Women’s Ministries, and Women’s Empowerment.” PhD diss., University of California, Irvine.Google Scholar
Scheve, Kenneth, and Stasavage, David (2010) “The conscription of wealth: mass warfare and the demand for progressive taxation.” International Organization 64: 529–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheve, Kenneth, and Stasavage, David (2012) “Democracy, war, and wealth: lessons from two centuries of inheritance taxation.” American Political Science Review 106: 81–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simonsen, Lone, Chowell, Gerardo, Andreasen, Viggo, Gaffey, Robert, Barry, John, Olson, Don, and Viboud, Cécile (2018) “A review of the 1918 herald pandemic wave: importance for contemporary pandemic response strategies.” Annals of Epidemiology 28 (5): 281–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skocpol, Theda (1985) “Bringing the state back in: strategies of analysis in current research,” in Evans, Peter B., Ruschemeyer, Dietrich, and Skocpol, Theda (eds.) Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 3–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spinney, Laura (2017) Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Steward, Journey, and Wingfield, Nancy M. (2016) “Venereal diseases,” in Daniel, Ute (ed.) 1914–1918 Online International Encyclopedia of the First World War. Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin: 1–7, www.encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/pdf/1914-1918-Online-venereal_diseases-2016-09-23.pdf.Google Scholar
Stolper, Gustav (1915) “Die kriegswirtschaftlichen Vorgänge und Maßnahmen in Österreich.” Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung XXIV: 1–113.Google Scholar
Strang, David, and Chang, Patricia Mei Yin (1993) “The International Labour Organization and the welfare state: institutional effects on national welfare spending, 1960–1980.” International Organization, 47 (2): 235–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, George M., and Lauderdale, Pat (1988) “State authority and national welfare programs in the world system context.” Sociological Forum 3 (3): 383–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Charles (1975) The Formation of National States in Western Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Titmuss, Richard M. (1958) “War and social policy,” in Titmuss, Richard M. (ed.) Essays on the Welfare State. Second Edition. London: Unwin University Books: 75–87.Google Scholar
Van de Walle, Steven, and Brans, Marleen (2018) “Where comparative public administration and comparative policy studies meet.” Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 20 (1): 101–13.Google Scholar
Wade, Rex A. (2017) “The Great War, revolution, and the struggle over peace: Russia 1917.” Revolutionary Russia 30 (2): 182–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallin, Michel (1969) “Labour administration: origins and development.” International Labour Review 100 (1): 51–110.Google Scholar
Wilensky, Harold L. (1975) The Welfare State and Equality: Structural and Ideological Roots of Public Expenditure. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Willson, F.M.G (1955) “Ministries and boards: some aspects of administrative development since 1832.” Public Administration 33 (1): 43–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar