Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany
()
About this ebook
Why does the welfare state develop so unevenly across countries, regions, and localities? What accounts for the exclusions and disciplinary features of social programs? How are elite and popular conceptions of social reality related to welfare policies? George Steinmetz approaches these and other issues by exploring the complex origins and development of local and national social policies in nineteenth-century Germany. Generally regarded as the birthplace of the modern welfare state, Germany experimented with a wide variety of social programs before 1914, including the national social insurance legislation of the 1880s, the "Elberfeld" system of poor relief, protocorporatist policies, and modern forms of social work. Imperial Germany offers a particularly useful context in which to compare different programs at various levels of government.
Looking at changes in welfare policy over the course of the nineteenth century, differences between state and municipal interventions, and intercity variations in policy, Steinmetz develops an account that focuses on the specific constraints on local and national policymakers and the different ways of imagining the "social question." Whereas certain aspects of the pre-1914 welfare state reinforced social divisions and even foreshadowed aspects of the Nazi regime, other dimensions actually helped to relieve sickness, poverty, and unemployment. Steinmetz explores the conditions that led to both the positive and the objectionable features of social policy. The explanation draws on statist, Marxist, and social democratic perspectives and on theories of gender and culture.
George Steinmetz
George Steinmetz is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago.
Read more from George Steinmetz
The Devil's Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German Colonial State in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Regulating the Social
Titles in the series (6)
Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGibeon, Where the Sun Stood Still: The Discovery of the Biblical City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Social Bodies: Science, Reproduction, and Italian Modernity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt's Urabi Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related ebooks
The Nation as a Local Metaphor: Wurttemberg, Imperial Germany, and National Memory, 1871-1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBetween Reform and Revolution: German Socialism and Communism from 1840 to 1990 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Risen from Ruins: The Cultural Politics of Rebuilding East Berlin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelling the Economic Miracle: Economic Reconstruction and Politics in West Germany, 1949-1957 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Politics of Economic Decline in East Germany, 1945-1989 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imperial Germany Revisited: Continuing Debates and New Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Berlin Police Force in the Weimar Republic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Colonial Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History, 18801945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoverty and Welfare in Modern German History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNarratives in the Making: Writing the East German Past in the Democratic Present Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom Craftsmen to Capitalists: German Artisans from the Third Reich to the Federal Republic, 1939-1953 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBismarck and the Development of Germany: The Period of Unification, 1815-1871 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Imperfect Union: Constitutional Structures of German Unification Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom the Bonn to the Berlin Republic: Germany at the Twentieth Anniversary of Unification Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Case for Germany.: A Study of Modern Germany. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoral Economies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany, 1949-1968 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Don't Need No Thought Control: Western Culture in East Germany and the Fall of the Berlin Wall Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Home Towns: Community, State, and General Estate, 1648–1871 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFailure of a Mission: Berlin, 1937-1939 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRebuilding Jewish Life in Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Birth of a New Europe: State and Society in the Nineteenth Century Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A History Shared and Divided: East and West Germany since the 1970s Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom Bismarck to Hitler: The Background of Modern German Nationalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWild Socialism: Workers Councils in Revolutionary Berlin, 1918-21 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBureaucracy, Work and Violence: The Reich Ministry of Labour in Nazi Germany, 1933–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Persistence of Race: Continuity and Change in Germany from the Wilhelmine Empire to National Socialism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStructuring the State: The Formation of Italy and Germany and the Puzzle of Federalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Practical Imagination: The German Sciences of State in the Nineteenth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
History & Theory For You
The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reconstruction Updated Edition: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-18 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is Administrative Law Unlawful? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prince: Second Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Five Minds for the Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Theory of Justice: Original Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary Guide: The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene | The Mindset Warrior Summary Guide Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sinister Forces—The Manson Secret: A Grimoire of American Political Witchcraft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bloodbath Nation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Antisemitism: Part One of The Origins of Totalitarianism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origins Of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Building the American Republic, Volume 1: A Narrative History to 1877 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Progress and Poverty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wretched of the Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essential Chomsky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Human Condition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5End of History and the Last Man Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Regulating the Social
0 ratings0 reviews