The political economy of insecurity: The American Association for Labor Legislation and the crusade for social welfare reform in the Progressive Era. (Volumes I and II)

This dissertation examines the progressive-era origins of the American "welfare state." Its focus is the American Association for Labor Legislation (AALL), an organization which launched the movement for social insurance and protective labor laws in the United States. Four questions motivate the study: Who were the AALL reformers and how did they conceive of their role? What was their conception of poverty and their plan for combatting it? What were their legislative strategies, and what obstacles did they face? Finally, how did their work during the progressive era influence the subsequent development of American welfare policy?;The leaders of the AALL were mainly academic economists who regarded themselves as mediators between labor and capital and as scientific stewards of the public interest. Like Karl Marx, these reformer-economists recognized that industrial capitalism created widespread worker insecurity. Unlike Marx, they sought to solve the problem by socializing risk, not capital. They believed the introduction of social insurance, in particular, would shift the financial burden of industrial hazards from workers to employers, inducing the latter to prevent hazards. Like earlier generations of reformers, they aimed to prevent poverty rather than merely to relieve the poor.;The AALL reformers' campaigns achieved mixed results during the progressive period. They secured federal legislation taxing poison phosphorus matches out of existence. Most states enacted workers' compensation laws. Several states enacted hours and wages laws for women. No state enacted unemployment or health insurance before the 1930s. In all their campaigns, the Association reformers faced formidable constitutional, political, and institutional obstacles--especially the doctrine of federalism; degenerative competition among the states; gender-biased judicial rulings; and occasional but stiff resistance from corporate capital and organized labor.;Despite the Association's mixed legislative record, its leaders nevertheless helped to set the trajectory of twentieth-century welfare policy development. Most significant was their equation of social welfare with worker security. That equation has produced a "welfare state" (or, perhaps, "security state") that protects most workers from falling into poverty but offers precious little assistance to the very poor, who have not entered the regular work force and have nearly nothing for the state to protect.