The Laissez-Faire Experiment
Why Britain Embraced and Then Abandoned Small Government, 1800–1914
Seiten
2024
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-21341-5 (ISBN)
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-21341-5 (ISBN)
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Why Britain’s attempt at small government proved unable to cope with the challenges of the modern world
In the nineteenth century, as Britain attained a leading economic and political position in Europe, British policymakers embarked on a bold experiment with small and limited government. By the outbreak of the First World War, however, this laissez-faire philosophy of government had been abandoned and the country had taken its first steps toward becoming a modern welfare state. This book tells the story of Britain’s laissez-faire experiment, examining why it was done, how it functioned, and why it was ultimately rejected in favor of a more interventionist form of governance.
Blending insights from modern economic theory with a wealth of historical evidence, W. Walker Hanlon traces the slow expansion of government intervention across a broad spectrum of government functions in order to understand why and how Britain gave up on laissez-faire. It was not abandoned because Britain’s leaders lost faith in small government as some have suggested, nor did it collapse under the growing influence of working-class political power. Instead, Britain’s move away from small government was a pragmatic and piecemeal response—by policymakers who often deeply believed in laissez-faire—to the economic forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution.
In the nineteenth century, as Britain attained a leading economic and political position in Europe, British policymakers embarked on a bold experiment with small and limited government. By the outbreak of the First World War, however, this laissez-faire philosophy of government had been abandoned and the country had taken its first steps toward becoming a modern welfare state. This book tells the story of Britain’s laissez-faire experiment, examining why it was done, how it functioned, and why it was ultimately rejected in favor of a more interventionist form of governance.
Blending insights from modern economic theory with a wealth of historical evidence, W. Walker Hanlon traces the slow expansion of government intervention across a broad spectrum of government functions in order to understand why and how Britain gave up on laissez-faire. It was not abandoned because Britain’s leaders lost faith in small government as some have suggested, nor did it collapse under the growing influence of working-class political power. Instead, Britain’s move away from small government was a pragmatic and piecemeal response—by policymakers who often deeply believed in laissez-faire—to the economic forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution.
W. Walker Hanlon is associate professor of economics and codirector of the Center for Economic History at Northwestern University.
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 10.9.2024 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | The Princeton Economic History of the Western World |
| Zusatzinfo | 62 b/w illus. 19 tables. |
| Verlagsort | New Jersey |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 156 x 235 mm |
| Themenwelt | Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie |
| Wirtschaft ► Allgemeines / Lexika | |
| Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-691-21341-0 / 0691213410 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-691-21341-5 / 9780691213415 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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