William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, was a British economist who was a noted progressive and social reformer.
He is best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services which served as the basis for the post-World War II welfare state put in place by the Labour government elected in 1945. He was considered an authority on unemployment insurance from early in his career, served under Winston Churchill on the Board of Trade as Director of the newly created labour exchanges and later as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Food. He was Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1919 until 1937, when he was elected Master of University College, Oxford. Beveridge published widely on unemployment and social security, his most notable works being: Unemployment: A Problem of Industry , Planning Under Socialism , Full Employment in a Free Society , Pillars of Security , Power and Influence , and A Defence of Free Learning .
William Beveridge Beveridge Report
Pt. 1, 8
Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942)
Context: Organisation of social insurance should be treated as one part only of a comprehensive policy of social progress. Social insurance fully developed may provide income security; it is an attack upon Want. But Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction and in some ways the easiest to attack. The others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.
William Beveridge Beveridge Report
Pt. 7
Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942)
“A revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.”
William Beveridge Beveridge Report
Pt. 1, 7
Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942)
Context: Any proposals for the future, while they should use to the full the experience gathered in the past, should not be restricted by consideration of sectional interests established in the obtaining of that experience. Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field. A revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.
As quoted in "Sayings of the Week" in The Observer [London] (15 April 1934)
William Beveridge Beveridge Report
Pt. 1, 7
Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942)
Context: Any proposals for the future, while they should use to the full the experience gathered in the past, should not be restricted by consideration of sectional interests established in the obtaining of that experience. Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field. A revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.
“The state is or can be master of money, but in a free society it is master of very little else.”
Voluntary Action (1948) Ch. 12
William Beveridge Beveridge Report
Pt. 1, 8
Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942)
Context: Organisation of social insurance should be treated as one part only of a comprehensive policy of social progress. Social insurance fully developed may provide income security; it is an attack upon Want. But Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction and in some ways the easiest to attack. The others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.
Full Employment in a Free Society (1944) Pt. 7
“Scratch a pessimist and you find often a defender of privilege.”
As quoted in "Sayings of the Week" in The Observer [London] (17 December 1943)
William Beveridge Beveridge Report
Pt. 1, 9
Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942)
