The Analysis Of British National Efficiency Ideas At The Turn Of Nineteenth-Century And Twentieth-Century

Britain, during the Victorian era, reached its peak and was called’empire the sun never sets’. However, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, the pace of development in the British economy macro level had lagged behind Germany and the United States, the trend of decline began. This is mainly reflected in the following aspects:first, the important support of the British economy-free trade-faced with severe challenges, and Britain’s share in world trade gradually reduced; second, the ’world factory’status can not be maintained. The traditional industry, due to backward technology, lack of innovative capacity, could no longer hold the dominant position. New industries had not developed rapidly. So, the basis for the development of British economy was damaged. Besides, the low labor productivity and backward industrial management model, coupled with industrial restructuring, all these are Britain’s disadvantage in economic competition with the United States, Germany and other countries. At the turn of the twentieth century, in Britain the Liberal and Conservative party competed fiercely. The various split and joint within the two parties promoted the reform ideas come into being. The establishment of Labor Party had far-reaching implications in the British latter politics. British society has reached a high degree of urbanization, but the problem of poverty was also becoming increasingly prominent.Until that time, however, many British people were not aware of the serious problems of national development until the Boer War. In the process of recruitment for the Boer War, a lot of candidates because of the constitution could not join the army. Due to the poor performance of the British Army in the war, Britain paid a huge human, financial consideration, after nearly three years, to defeat the Boers. The war prompted the British insightful people to reflect on the decline of the country. Liberal imperialists, liberal unionist, Fabian and many other people break the boundaries of political parties and class and gradually reached a consensus. They were awared that the decline of’national efficiency’largely lead Britain’s relative decline, and thus strongly called for the improvement of the national efficiency.National efficiency advocates believe that the lack of national efficiency is mainly manifested in the material and spiritual level, that is to say, the decline of the national constitution and low productivity. When analyzing the reasons, they mainly resort to social survey of British poverty problem by Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree and elaboration of the problem in traditional education by the social intellectuals. These two aspects are the realistic basis for the development of national efficiency ideas.The representatives of different schools put forward their point of view on British national efficiency. They analyzed the reasons for the lack and proposed improving advice. The liberal-imperialists, Lord Rosebery as the representative, held the view that the British party system undermined the efficiency. Only through the cooperation between the political parties as well as social reform, could we make our citizens reach the needs of the empire. Liberal-unionist, Joseph Chamberlain as the representative, combined tariffs with empire, employment and efficiency. They believe that tariff reform was necessary, implementing preferential tariff in England and its autonomy colonies. The Fabian Society, Webbs as the representatives, paid more attention to the realization of the overall interests of society. They aimed to solve poverty problem, proposing to set a’minimum income standard’to improve the living conditions of the poorest people in society. Social person Horsfall emphasised on the influence of living environment to national efficiency. White, a journalist, regarded that low sector efficiency is due to the unequal opportunities. Eugenics advocated linking the breeding of future generations and national efficiency.’More capable’people should be allowed to have more children, and reduce the fertility of the’losers’, which could nurture more efficient nationals. These schools, analyzing the British national efficiency from different perspectives, emphasized that as the foundation of a country, nationals were decisive in the comprehensive national strength. If the Britain wanted to maintain its world power status, the national efficiency must be improved.The ideas of national efficiency have certain impact on the development of modern British society. On one hand, it promoted the British government to carry out a series of education reforms in the early twentieth century and basically a relatively complete education system was formed. On the other hand, the notion of ’service-oriented country’, which laid the foundation for modern British welfare state, was put forward during social reforms of1906-1914by Liberal Party. The ideas of national efficiency largely promoted the reform. It offered some theoretical reference and practical experience for establishment of the modern British welfare state.This thesis attempts to combine sociology, political science, economics and education together to find out the background of the emergency and the developing basis of the idea. The main viewpoint and influence of each school are listed, and the developing process of the ideas is sought.