Aims and Impact

Britain – The Liberal Reforms, 1906-14

In this course, Professor Matthew Cole (University of Birmingham) thinks about the series of acts of social legislation passed by the Liberal government between 1906-14, known collectively as the Liberal reforms. In the first module, we think about the aims of the reforms and their impact. In the second and third modules, we think about the reforms aims at children and people of working age, respectively, before turning in the fourth module to the introduction of the state pension in 1908.

Aims and Impact

In this module, we think about the reasons for that the Liberal Party passed a series of acts of social legislation in the period 1906-14, and the extent to which they were successful in their aims. In particular, we think about: (i) the key social problems that faced Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century, particularly the issue of poverty; (ii) the historiography of the Liberal reforms: did they represent the foundation of the welfare state in Britain, or were they – in David Fraser's words – "social policy to head of socialism"?; (iii) three motivating factors for launching the Liberal reforms: the moral argument, the economic argument, and the political argument; and (iv) the extent to which the Liberal reforms were a success.