¹ In this paper, the terms ‘social legislation’, ‘social welfare legislation’, and ‘welfare legislation’ are used interchangeably. The boundaries of the term are taken from Socialreformkommissionens Betsnkning, I., Det Social Tryghedssystem; Struktur og Dagpenge (1969).Google Scholar That report, the basis for the reforms of 1973, divides ‘social expenditures’ into seven categories: sickness, accident insurance and workers’ safety, old age and invalidity, unemployment, general aid, family and children's allowances, wounded military veterans. With the exception of the last two, not significant during the period, these are the categories here considered. The author gratefully acknowledges support from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which made research for this article possible.

² Rigsdagstidende, Landsting (hereafter cited as LT), 1888/9, October 13, 1888, cols. 69–79.Google Scholar

³ Bruun, Henry, Den Faglige Arbejderbevagelse i Danmark indtil Aar 1900 (Copenhagen, 1938), pp. 63–71, 466–86.Google ScholarSygekassevssnet, , Fra Laugsygekasser til Folkeforsikring (Copenhagen, 1942), especially the chapter, ‘Sygekasseloven af 1892, Forudsætninger og Tilblivelse’, by Svend Christiansen, pp. 9–99.Google Scholar

⁴ Party names in Denmark are confusing. The party called ‘Right’ remained conservative. The party called ‘Left’ was, in the 1890s, a reform party. By the 1920s, however, other parties, particularly the ‘Radical Left’ and, further to the left, the ‘Social Democrats’, took over leadership of various reforms. The ‘Left’ kept its name, even though it stood near the conservative end of the political spectrum. The commission: Nedsat af Indenrigsministeren, July 4, 1885, til ‘Overvejelsen af Sporgsmaalene om Sygekassernes Ordning og om Arbejdernes Sikring mod Følgerne af Ulykkestilfaede under Arbejdet’, 21–2.

⁵ Rigsdagstidende, Folketing (hereafter cited as FT), 1890/1, December 20, 1890, col. 1721.Google Scholar

⁶ Ibid., December 20, 1890, 1738–9.

⁷ Ibid., December 12, 1890, 1771.

⁸ LT 88/9, October 12, 1888, 46–53.

⁹ FT 25/6, January 13, 1926, 3291.

¹⁰ For example, the sickness societies began as purely private ventures, were for many years financed by a combination of private and public funds, and since 1973 have been totally publicly financed.

¹¹ FT 90/1, December 21, 1890, 1783. See also Nils Neergaard, e.g., FT 89/90, November 11, 1889, 122–34. Geltzer's assumption and language are still used in the twentieth century. See Sabroe, Povl, ‘Abent Brev til Spare-Per’, Politiken, April 19, 1973, p. 11.Google Scholar

¹² Though any one who received that help from the Poor Law Authority lost his vote.

¹³ Para. 50, clause 1.

¹⁴ Para. 52, clause 1. Italics in original.

¹⁵ That it was in fact taken for granted is shown by Klein as early as November 6, 1889. FT 89/90, 818.

¹⁶ Leth, FT 89/90, February 2, 1890, 2588–94. Formally, one could go to court if the minister acted illegally, but this right was virtually never used and was intended to correct cases of gross abuse of power, not simply differences in judgement.

¹⁷ Steincke, K. K., Fra hele Valpladsen (Copenhagen, 1946), pp. 70–85.Google Scholar

¹⁸ FT 24/5, March 11, 1925, 5946–50.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Ibid., March 11, 1925, 5899.

²⁰ Ibid.

²¹ Ibid., December 3, 1924, 2627.

²² Ibid., January 14, 1926, 3936–1.

²³ Ibid., January 26, 1927, 2028.

²⁴ Krag: FT 28/9, October 31, 1929, 1473.Google Scholar Steincke: ibid., November 4, 1929, 1545–46.

²⁵ See the editorials in Social-Demokraten, February 6, 1927, 6; February 10, 1927, 6; and February 18, 1927, 8.Google Scholar

²⁶ Kaarsted, Tage, Påskekrisen (Aarhus, 1968).Google Scholar

²⁷ FT 90/91, December 12, 1890, 1771.Google Scholar

²⁸ LT 89/90, November 2, 1889, 239.Google Scholar

²⁹ This attitude is clearly expressed in the Folketing Committee Report, Rigsdagstidende 89/90, Tillæg B, 545–9.

³⁰ Ibid., 06/07, Tillæg A, 2779.

³¹ FT 24/25, December 12, 1924, 2614. The phrase ‘den gamle haandvaerks tid’ evoked associations of warm personal relationships between master and journeyman, lack of class feeling and pride in product. The reality was not necessarily so idyllic.Google Scholar

³² Steincke, K. K., Fremtidens Førsergelsesvæsen (Copenhagen, 1920), p. 13.Google Scholar The first seven pages and last half page of the book discuss theoretical issues of capitalism and socialism. Between these theoretical discussions come 507 pages on what in fact should be done in the present situation. See also the second and third volumes of his autobiography, Fra Hele Valpladsen (Copenhagen, 1946), pp. 60–2,Google Scholar and Det Trækker Op (Copenhagen, 1947), pp. 9–35, 105–41.Google Scholar

³³ Steincke, , Fremtidens Forsørgelsesvæsen, p. 7.Google Scholar

³⁴ FT 29/30, December 17, 1929, 3402–54.Google Scholar

³⁵ Ibid., January 21, 1930,4121–13. Note that he uses ‘battles’ (kamp) as that which should be avoided.

³⁶ Social-Demokraten, June 14, 1927, pp. 1, 6–8.Google Scholar

³⁷ The charity organization societies in England and America had precisely the goal of encouraging the poor to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. See Bremner, Robert H., From the Depths: The Discovery of Poverty in America (New York, 1956), pp. 46–85;Google ScholarKusmer, Kenneth L., ‘The Functions of Organized Charity in the Progressive Era. Chicago as a Case Study’, Journal of American History, LX (12 1973), 657–79:CrossRefGoogle Scholar Kusmer emphasizes that charity workers sought a sense of community, but their implicit assumptions are readily apparent. Huggins, Nathan I., Protestants Against Poverty. Boston's Charities, 1870–1900 (Westport, 1971);Google ScholarPaine, Robert Treat Jr., ‘Address’, delivered at the Charity Building, March 12, 1879.Google Scholar

³⁸ Kaare Svalastoga and Gøsta Carsson, ‘Scandinavia’, in Archer, Margaret Scotford and Ginner, Salvador (eds.), Contemporary Europe: Class, Status and Power (London, 1971), p. 359,Google Scholar emphasize how important one's ‘position’ is to one's identity. Until 1974, the Copenhagen telephone book was arranged first by last name, then by occupation, then by first name.

³⁹ Aside from the commission referred to in note 4, see: Indenrigsministeriet, , De Danske Sygekasser (Copenhagen, 1887),Google Scholar and P. Knudsen, Sygeforsikring og Alderdomsforsørgelse, afgiven af de paa de københavnske og frederiksbergske Sygekassers Fælesmode den 29 de og 30 de August, 1883, nedsatte Udvalg, 1888. The material on American attitudes is summarized in Levine, Daniel, Jane Addams and the Liberal Tradition (Madison, 1971). pp. 129–36. Even the reformers regarded poverty as a mistake. However, they insisted the fault lay in a misconstructed society rather than individual weakness. They did not regard the permanent existence of poverty as natural or normal.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ This may be contrasted with attitudes still current in the United States. Susan Jacoby, , ‘Waiting for the End’, New York Times, VI (03 31, 1974), 90, quotes the vice-president of a nursing home as saying, ‘There is a feeling in this state that people who are old and poor have somehow mismanaged their affairs.’Google Scholar

⁴¹ Although Dich, Jørgen, Den Herskende Klasse (Odense, 1973), pp. 203–31,Google Scholar argues in a controversial study, that since the Second World War substantial levelling has taken place. See my review of Dich's book in The Journal of Social History, 09, 1974.Google ScholarPubMed

⁴² Steincke, , Fremtidens Forsørgelsesvasen, 228–37. See election propaganda preserved in Arbejderbevægelsens Bibliotek og Arkiv.Google Scholar

⁴³ For a suggestive analysis of the relationship between school and mobility in American ideology, see Turner, Ralph H., ‘Sponsored and Contest Mobility and the School System’, American Sociological Review, 25, (1960), 855–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Lawrence A. Cremin shows how a utilitarian element became part of the school picture, in the spirit of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard, , in American Education, the Colonial Experience, 1607–1783 (New York, 1970), 359–87.Google Scholar Recently, American sociologists, historians and polemicists have discovered that schools often function as a barrier rather than a ladder. Their anger over this discovery is further evidence that schools were supposed to further mobility. See Jenks, Christopher (ed.), Inequality, A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America (New York, 1972), especially pp. 16–52 and 138–41;Google ScholarGreer, Colin, The Great School Legend: A Revisionist Interpretation of American Public Education (New York, 1973);Google ScholarColeman, James S., Equality of Educational Opportunity (Washington, D.C., 1966).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Dixon, Willis, Education in Denmark (Copenhagen, 1958), pp. 133–73.Google ScholarBang, Nina, ‘Fremlaeggelsestale’, FT 24/25, February 6, 1925, 4755–69.Google Scholar Forslag til Lov om Skolevæsnets Styrelse og Tilsyn, Rigsdagstidende 25/26, Tillæg A, 2687–726. Cf. Skovgaard-Petersen, Vagn, Dannelse og. Demokrati: Fra Latin- til Almenskole (Copenhagen, 1976) which gives some weight to class considerations, in the school reform of 1903.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Skovmand, Roar, Folkehøjskolen i Danmark, 1841–1892 (Copenhagen, 1944) makes clear that the højskol movement was designed to make better educated and more nationally conscious farmers, not to move people up the ladder.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Bagge, Povl, ‘Akademikerne i dansk politik i det 19, århundrede, nogle synspunkter’, Historisk Tidsskrift (Copenhagen), 12 Række, Bind IV, Hæfte 3, 1970, 423–74.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ For fiction, see for example Rifbjerg, Klaus, Den Kroniske Uskyld (Copenhagen, 1958);Google ScholarBodelsen, Anders, Ferie (Copenhagen, 1970).Google Scholar See also Neergaard, Nils, Erindringer (Copenhagen, 1935).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ For two clearly illustrative examples of many which could be cited, see: Hubbard, G. H., ‘The Why of Poverty’, New Englander, L (03 1889), 180–8;Google ScholarPeabody, F. G., ‘How Should a City Care for Its Poor?’, Forum, XIV (1892), 474–5.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ De Tocqueville wrote of American attitudes toward poverty that where social rank was eliminated ‘the desire of acquiring the comforts of the world haunts the imagination of the poor, and the threat of losing them that of the rich’, Democracy in America (ed. Bradley, Phillips, New York, 1945), vol. II, p. 129.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Despite Gustav Bang, there was virtually not a trace of socialism in the Social Democratic Party's new program in 1913, and there has not been since. See the party program in Arbeiderbevægelsens Bibliotek og Arkiv. Bertolt, Oluf, Christiansen, Ernst and Hansen, Poul, En Bygning vi Rejser (Copenhagen, 1954), pp. 344–52.Google ScholarChristiansen, Nils Finn, ‘Revisionismens betydning for det danske socialdemokratis idéudvikling fra 1890 erne til 1930 erne’, Magisterafhandling, History, Copenhagen University, 1964, Unpublished.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Hartz, Louis, The Liberal Tradition in America (New York, 1955).Google Scholar

⁵² Again, de Tocqueville contrasts America and at least France: ‘Aristocracy links everybody, from peasant to king, in one long chain. Democracy breaks the chain and frees each link’, op. cit., vol. II, p. 99.Google Scholar

⁵³ Glazer, Nathan, ‘The Limits of Social Policy’, Commentary, vol. 52, no. 3 (09 1971), 51–8.Google Scholar