Creating the welfare state in France, 1880-1940 / Timothy B. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Timothy B. (Timothy Beresford)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social security--France--History.

Social security.

Public welfare--France--History.

Public welfare.

Health insurance--France--History--20th century.

Health insurance.

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

Unemployment.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (250 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

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

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

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

ISBN:

1-282-86064-X

9786612860645

0-7735-7043-8

OCLC:

756589766