In the Shadow of Speenhamland

Social Policy and the Old Poor Law

Bibliographic Data

ID22760874
AuthorsF Block (0000-0003-3170-074X, corresponding author), Margaret Somers
Year2003
Volume31
Issue2
Pages283-323
Publication date2003-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3292 • E-ISSN: 1552-7514
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0032329203031002004
OpenAlexW4238926988
LanguageEN
Citations received15

In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act that ended the entitlement of poor families to government assistance. The debate leading up to that transformation in welfare policy occurred in the shadow of Speenhamland—an episode in English Poor Law history. This article revisits the Speenhamland episode to unravel its tangled history. Drawing on four decades of recent scholarship, the authors show that Speenhamland policies could not have had the consequences that have been attributed to them. The article ends with an alternative narrative that seeks to explain how the Speenhamland story became so deeply entrenched.

Art · Economics · Entitlement (fair division) · Government (linguistics) · Law and economics · Narrative · Political science · Scholarship · Shadow (psychology) · Social policy · Sociology · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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