'Race' and Racism Beveridge's welfa

'Race' and Racism
Beveridge's welfare policies were firmly grounded in terms that related them to the advancement of national efficiency and racial supremacy: `housewives as mothers have vital work to do in ensuring the adequate continuance of the British race and British ideals in the world' (Beveridge, 1942, para. 1 17). In an essay on `Children's Allowances and the Race' he stated, 'Pride of race is a reality for the British as for other peoples' (quoted in Cohen, 1985). The sense of pride in the British welfare state stemmed partly from the idea of its being a reward for the self-sacrifice of the war effort as well as a protraction of the ideology of nationalist collectivism felt during the war. At the same time, the introduction of forms of collectivism especially in welfare provision had, since the turn of the century, mobilized around a strongly nationalist theme. The promotion by all the major political parties of the sense of solidarity through 'nation' vied, relatively successfully by the First World War, with the sense of solidarity through class which political organizations like the Social Democratic Federation had mobilized in the 1880s. Furthermore, this sense of nation was strongly tied to Britain as an imperialist power. The justification for imperial war and conquest and colonialism was rooted in ideas derived from Social Darwinism of the cultural and moral superiority of the Anglo-Saxon Christian European over all colonialized and oppressed peoples - Jews, the Irish, Muslims, Africans, Caribbeans, Asians. British nationalism was thus historically set in a racist mould, a mould which had a significant effect upon the cast of welfare reforms. The Conservatives under Chamberlain pushed the line that the maintenance of the empire and its markets was essential toprovide employment and welfare reforms for the working class The Liberals, whoseprogramme of reforms of unemployment and sickness benefit and old age pensions in 1906-14 was the framework upon which into Beveridge built his National Insurance system, integrated imperialism welfare reforms in a particular form of social imperialism which stressed