Visions of the State in Britain, c. 1914 - 1951

The welfare state forged in the aftermath of World War II marked a moment of unprecedented state expansion in peacetime Britain. Enduring more or less unchallenged until the Thatcher years, and in parts (like the NHS) remaining fundamentally intact to this day, it is commonly explained with reference to the democratising impulse of the so-called ‘People’s War’ and Labour’s famous victory in 1945. Yet many of the principles that underpinned this social democratic vision had occupied the popular political imagination since the First World War, when the extension of the franchise coincided with earlier debates about post-war reconstruction.

This paper explores how politicians and voters imagined and re-imagined the ideal shape and role of the British state during the first decades of mass democracy. Whereas historians in recent decades have studied the role of class, gender and political communication in shaping electoral politics, the aim here is to foreground ideas about state formation in the context of popular politics. Students will consider the influence (and limits) of competing party-political ideologies, alongside the contributions of Whitehall officials and public intellectuals, in shaping popular ideas of democratic statecraft. They will also explore how major political, social and cultural developments – including wartime mobilisation, the rise of Labour, mass culture, radio broadcasting, generational (dis)continuities – served to encourage and to contain reform potential. How far can these processes appropriately be said to constitute an ‘Age of Reconstruction’?

A further central aim of the paper is to explore the anatomy of popular political debate itself. Students will engage with a range of sources including official documents, election manifestos, posters and pamphlets, speeches and broadcasts. By a[ending to the contributions of politicians, civil servants and intellectuals, students will build a picture of how ideas and reform schemes were composed, circulated and contested. Students will also be introduced to a broader field of sources beyond the obviously political, including fiction, social-scientific commentary and public history, to explore the popular contexts in which these ideas were received, understood and given everyday meaning.