1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781903603321

Autore

Smith Timothy B (Timothy Beresford)

Titolo

Creating the welfare state in France, 1880-1940 [[electronic resource] /] / Timothy B. Smith

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Montreal ; ; Ithaca, : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2003

ISBN

1-282-86064-X

9786612860645

0-7735-7043-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (250 p.)

Disciplina

361.6/5/094409041

Soggetti

Social security - France - History

Public welfare - France - History

Health insurance - France - History - 20th century

Unemployment - Government policy - France - History - 20th century

Sécurité sociale - France - Histoire

Aide sociale - France - Histoire

Assurance-maladie - France - Histoire - 20e siècle

Chômage - Politique gouvernementale - France - Histoire - 20e siècle

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-236) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- The French social service landscape prior to World War I : localism vs. centralization -- The crucible of war -- Building mini-welfare states, 1920-1940 -- The decline of traditional charitable medicine, the emergence of limited national health insurance -- Unemployment policy, 1914-1940 : from the local to the national.

Sommario/riassunto

Smith shows that France's most important social legislation to date - providing medical insurance, maternity benefits, modest pensions, and disability benefits to millions of people - was passed in 1928 (and amended and put into practice in 1930). This law, misrepresented in textbooks as being an utter failure, covered over 50 percent of the population by 1940. Few other nations could have claimed this sort of social insurance success. As well, by 1937 the centuries-old public assistance residency requirements had been transferred from the local



to the departmental (regional) level. France's success in introducing important social reforms may require us to rethink - or at least modify - the common view of interwar France as a time of utter political, economic, and social failure.