Reforms Of British Labour’s Social Security System For Ideological Reasons

Social security system is the one which guarantees the members of society toenjoy the basic right of social life through distribution and redistribution of nationalincome by the state and society. So it undoubtedly concerns people’s life and it is aprecondition for the national stability and prosperity. Ideology originates from thesocial material life which is on the basis of productive labour; it changes with theeconomic basis and social contradictions and also reacts upon social material life. Forideological reasons, the reform of social security system was just a reflection of itscoordination with social economy. Over the past one hundred years since theestablishment of the party, the British Labour took the reform of social securitysystem as one of its main content during its administration.The original intention of the found of the British Labour Party is to represent allkinds of rights and interests of the working class and broad masses. The ideology oflabourism just caring for working class dominated within the party which influencedthe formulation and reform of its various polices. British Labour Party’s socialsecurity system was not perfect before the end of the World War II due to theweakness of social economy and class limitation. After the war, the soviet socialisteconomy developed rapidly, and this was viewed by the British Labour Party as achallenge as well as a threat. The party gradually formed democratic socialism whichdistinguished from the Soviet’s collective socialism. A “Five-in-one” social securitysystem was set up by the party, including: national health care, national insurance,housing assistance, personal social welfare and education aid. The universality of thesocial security policy, however, also brought some disadvantages. The failure in1979’s general election made the Labour Party realize it was an urgent matter thatanother reform should be implemented, thus “the Middle Way” theory was putforward. Such ideology pointed the way for Tony Blair’s reform of social securitysystem.The thesis analyzes the British Labour Party’s three main reforms of social security system from the perspective of ideological reasons and concludes that theprocess of reform was not only the coordination with social economy, but also a wayfor the Party to retain its vitality.