CASE STUDY
UK 1945-2000
The following notes are here to help you answer Question 25. This relates to Seciton 1é of the
syllabus.
12. Social and economic developments in Europe and the Middle
East in the 19th or 20th century
This section requires a case study of any one country of the region for a period of approximately fifty
years. As can be seen from the following, students require a thorough knowledge of the society concerned.
Any political references should be made within the context of social and economic developments and be
relevant to an understanding of them.
This section allows students to develop their investigative and critical skills within the context of a case
study of one country from the region. The chosen country and period of study should be identified in the
introduction to the examination answers.
• Social structure and attitudes: health reforms, welfare state; gender issues; suffrage
• Role and impact of religion(s), conflict and tensions
• Developments in education; expansion and diversity
• Developments in the arts: visual arts, music, theatre, film and literature, media, propaganda, leisure
and sport
• Immigration/emigration: causes and effects; demographic changes; urbanization
• Industrial revolution; impact of technology on society; the computer age
We have covered the UK 1945-2000.
In these questions, they often ask about changes in society and/or economy.
Both are closely connected.
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SOCIETY (A)
THE WELFARE STATE
This is the most significant feature of post-war British society.
All changes in the postwar UK can be linked to this issue. Indeed, the entire period can be split into
two. 1945-1979 when the Welfare State was set up and created what is called the ‘post war
consensus’. This means that whatever government was in power, basically agreed with the basis of
The Welfare Sate.This changed in 1979 when the Conservative Government which was elected
decide to dismantle the Welfare State, ‘role back’ the state and replace it with the ‘market’.
The role of the state became increasingly important in British society during World War 1 when the
State started to control war production. The 1910 Liberal Government also introduced some welfare
reforms, setting up a new unemployment scheme and pensions scheme.
But it was the Labour Government of 1945, under Clement Atlee, who won the election with a
landslide, that created the Welfare State.
During the war William Beveridge published a report in which it was stated that the State should the
‘5 Giant Evils’ of ‘want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.’ In other words, provide social
assistance for those who were the main victims of these evils, because private philanthropy and
charity were not capable of it by themselves .
A National Insurance Fund was set up (the money for this came from contributions made weekly or
monthly by workers and employers). This money was used for
Unemployment benefits (to help, financially, everyone who found themselves without a job)
Sickness benefits (to help, financially, everyone who was sick)
Pensions (to help, financially, all old people who, having retired, could no longer work to earn
money)
Family allowance (to help all people financially who had children)
This help was to be applied universally – not matter whether you were rich or poor.
A scheme of national Assistance was invented for the poorest members of society, and the right to
receive this was based o a means test.
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The same principle of universality applied to the national Health Service which was set up in 1948. All
citizens had a right to free medical and dental care.
This meant the government took over all hospitals (like they had nationalised many of the main
industries and public utilities, such as coal, steel, railways, water, electricity, gas, telecom).
Some worried about how this would be financed.
Some physicians feared they would earn less money as they would now become government salaried
employees.
Some saw it as too bureaucratic.
Some saw it as too messy, because, for example, ambulance services were left in the responsibility of
local authorities.
The Labour Government also began a social housing scheme with the Housing Act of 1946. Building
houses through the local government and keeping the rents low enough to enable poorer people to
be able to afford them.
About 1 million were built in 6 years (by c. 1951)
By the 1970s these welfare policies were thought to have become very expensive. Alongside this was
the problem of inflation.
By the 1970s, the governments were trying to keep wages down and cut spending. This caused lots
of industrial disputes and strikes.
By 1978 the Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan had brought inflation under control. But he had
upset the extremes on both sides of the dispute.
In 1979 Margaret Thatcher won the election and began a radical neo—liberal revolution, in which
she began the process of completely dismantling the Welfare State.
Her government’s philosophy was driven by a ‘monetarist’ approach to the economy. In other words,
they reduced taxes and public spending and allowed the ‘markets’ to dictate what would happen in
British society. She also decided to destroy the Unions. She was more in favour of a highly
individualist ‘ideology. At one point she even claimed “there is no such thing as society”.
So she began the process of ‘privatization’ : in other words, selling off all of the industries
nationalised by the Labour Party just after World War 2 – British Coal, British Steel, British Gas,
British Water, British Telecom, British Airways, British Rail, etc. A former Conservative Prime
Minister, Harold MacMillan disagreed with this. He called it “selling off the family jewels”.
She also reduced all economic restrictions and regulations.
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In order to reduce the role of the state in housing, she allowed people to buy their council houses.
She called this a ‘property-owning democracy’.
Having said that, the NHS was too popular, and it would have been too controversial for her
government to completely dismantle it.
SOCIETY (D)
THE ARTS AND POPULAR CULTURE
In postwar Britain, general culture was marked by the rise of the influence and the dominance of US
culture – in films and music. It was also marked by the influx of immigrants during the process of
decolonization. It was also marked by the post war baby boom. Thus, by the late 1950s there were
more people than ever before aged between 15 and 30.
In Literature and theatre, the pre-war popularity of the upper middle class sensiitivities of Noel
Coward and later Terence Rattigan, were replaced by the more experimental works of Samuel Becket
and Harold Pinter, as well as the likes of John Osborne form the movement known as ‘The Angry
Young Men.’ (they criticised the sterility and affluence of the 1950s) See his 1956 play Look Back in
Anger.
But there was greater continuity in detective novels (pre war popularity of Sherlock Holmes and
Agatha Christie, was continued with P.D James, and later TV shows like Inspector Morse, or films like
James Bond and the writings of John le Carré.
MUSIC
British music was influenced by the birth of Rock n Roll, the American blues,
There was a popular jazz scene in the 19050s.
This was then replaced by Skiffle (1956 Lonnie Donegen’s Rock Island Line)
There was some continuity with earlier traditions in the early music of The Beatles.
The 60s gave rise to the Beatles and the Stones. The 70s was Glam Rock, then Punk Rock, then New
Romantics of the 1980s. Electronic music came to the for in the 1990s
FILM, RADIO, TELEVSION
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Film was eventually replaced in popular terms by TV
Most well-known and popular British films dealt with class.
The Late 1950s saw the birth of British Free Cinema.
The BBC had the monopoly on radio and tv for a long time before and after the war.
By the 1960s and second TV channel had been established BBC2.
Soon, commercial tv companies were allowed to broadcast ITVand later on Channel 4 (1982)
POP CULTURE AND SUB-CULTURE
Teddy boys and Mods of late 50s and early 60s.
Early 60s saw the rise of Rockers versus Mods. The 6às also saw the rise of Skinheads.
The 70s saw the rise of the Punks.
Tensions were increased according to the rise and fall of unemployment and economic depression
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SOCIETY (B)
Whenever examining the relationships between the groups of people which make up any ‘society’,
sociologist analyse it in terms of three main concepts (and they could explicitly ask a question about
any one or all three of them)
(1) CLASS, (2) GENDER, (3) RACE
(1) CLASS
It can be defined by occupation, by income, by culture, by property ownership. It can also be fluid.
CLASS AND EDUCATION
In 1960s 9% went to university, and only 3% of that 9% was from the lowest group of the unskilled
working class, whereas 24% of it was from a middle class background.
20% came from most elite schools.
70% of the elite who went to university went to Oxford or Cambridge.
But by the end of the century higher education had become more common and less class bound.
SOCIAL MOBILITY
One questions sociologists always try to answer when studying a society is ‘how much mobility’ is
there between the existing class groups?
In terms of social mobility in the post war UK, in 1945 50% of people died in the class to which they
were born.
By end of century, there was more social mobility between middle and upper-middle class.
WORKING CLASS
In 1945, the working class, in terms of skilled and unskilled labour, were over 60% of population.
By 1990s it was 40%.
Within the working class, industrial manufacturing workers declined over the century, whilst
unskilled service industry workers increased.
(These changes were linked to economic changes and access to education)
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MIDDLE CLASS
Is upper middle calls professionals and independent business people?
Lower middle class is clerical and white collar jobs?
It was about 30% in 1945 but it grew, mainly thanks to jobs in science and technology.
UPPER CLASS
c. 2% in 1945 (difficult to define. Income? Social status?
There may have been an overall decline in the aristocracy. But the wealthiest in GB have increased
their proportion of the nation’s wealth compared to the other classes.
By 1990, 10% controlled 50% of the nation’s wealth.
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(2) GENDER
1928 women were given the right to vote.
War saw them enter the parts pof the workforce normally preserved for men.
However in 1946 only 1/5 of women had jobs, their wages were lower than men
1970 Equal Pay Act (implemented in 1975 and amended in 1984), but still gaps and inequalities at the
end of the century.
Only by 1973 were women allowed into the Stock Exchange, and by 2000 still less than 10% of heads
of leading companies in GB were women.
Increase in divorce in post-war period.
1949 Legal Aid act gave the poorer women access to a lawyer.
1971 Divorce Act allowed marriages to dissolve on grounds of marital breakdown.
Divorce rate has doubled since 1971
1967 Abortion Act
1967 Family Planning Act increased access to contraceptives.
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(3) RACE
IMMIGRATION
After the war Britain needed more workers to help reconstruct the country.
A lot came form Ireland, and some from eastern Europe.
Decolonization gave rise to a lot of immigrants
The British Nationality Act of 1948 helped people in the British Commonwealth come to England.
1950s saw lots from the West Indies.
1960s lots from India (Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims)
Continued in the 1970s as family members who arrived in the late 1950s had established themselves.
By 2000, 8% of population was born outside the UK. Dominated by Irish. Europeans dropped from a
half to a third of the total.
1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act limited right of entry from Commonwealth countries
1968 Commonwealth Immigration Act set up quotas form countries.
1968 Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech.
1993 Asylum Act curtailed refugee immigration.
‘RACE RELATIONS’
Biologically speaking, there is no such thing as race. But throughout this period in British history one
often talked of ‘race relations’ – the relations between the different ‘immigrant communities (today
we talk about ‘ethnic’ groups rather than ‘races’)
Everyone is, ultimately, an immigrant. It is just that some families have been there for more
generations than others. Examine the history of your own life or your own family and you will soon
realise this.
When reading this section of the notes, keep in mind analytical questions about the ways in which
immigrants affected society. They are the same questions one asks of ‘immigrants’ in any country
and any time in history. Ask yourself: ‘what type of immigrants? When were the main (biggest, most
intense) waves of immigration? From where did they come those ‘immigrants’? Why did they come
to GB? How were they received? What impact did they have on GB society)
These caused tensions which, beside being expressed in everyday prejudices (in the 1950s, for
example, West Indian immigrants often had their applications for jobs in industry turned down
because they were balck. Others were employed ‘behind the scenes’ in shops because the British
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customer did not want to be served by ‘foreigners’, especially blacks), which at times erupted into
violence. For example, the 1958 Notting Hill Riots.
To try to reduce discrimination in workplace successive governments pass the following Acts:
1965 Race Relations Act
1968 Race Relations Act
1976 Race Relations Act
1966 Labour Party set up race Relations Board.
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SOCIETY (C)
NB Education is a tool by which changes in society can be brought about.
EDUCATION
1944 saw the passing of the most significant Education Act (it is called The ‘Butler’ Act of 1944
because the man who wrote it was R.A.B. Butler and it was officially accepted by Parliament in 1944).
Butler wanted to use education to introduce some social reform and some greater sense of equality.
Up until then you needed money to get a good education.
So, he promised that, from 1945 onwards, more people would be able to have a secondary
education.
How did he achieve this?
He raised the official school leaving age to 15 – this meant that all children had to stay in school until
15. He also said it would be ‘free’ - in other words, tax payers money would be used to finance it.
This means that the central government and local education authorities have to provide the money
to ensure the necessary buildings and the staff and the teaching materials are available to cope with
the increased numbers of school children over 13 which this caused.
What type of schools did it set up?
He introduced a new three-tiered system of : Grammar Schools, Secondary Modern Schools and
Secondary technical schools. A big exam would be taken by 11 year olds to decide which stream they
would be put into. It was called the 11+ exam.
ASSESSMENT
Those who were more academically inclined went to Grammar schools, those more inclined to trades
and traditional working class occupations went to Secondary schools. The third never really took off
(less than 3% went to them).
It aimed for a more egalitarian society. However the 11+ exam tended to favour the middle class –
who then went on to grammar schools and later to university. Working class students tended to go
to secondary modern and continue in traditional working class occupations. So this did not really
change the class structure in Britain.
However, the education was free and it also included girls.
THE COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM FROM 1960s ONWARDS
A new experiment soon began: this was called the ‘comprehensive school’. It combined a Grammar
and a Secondary Modern education and eliminated the 11+.
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Until the 1960s, these accounted for no more than 5% of all schools.
Harold Wilson’s mid-60s Labour Government changed this and directed all local authorities to move
towards this comprehensive system and offer a comprehensive education for all between the ages of
11 and 18. (Some areas split this into a 2 tiered system, with a Comprehensivre School for the ages
11-16 and a separate 6th Form College for the ages 16-18.
This system continued and intensified throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
By then 90% of the secondary school population were attending Comprehensive Schools.
In 1984 the Conservative Government introduced a system by which schools could ‘opt out’ of local
government control and be funded directly by the central government. In other words, the
administration of the school would be the responsibility of the Head teacher and the Board of
Governors.
However, at the same time as this form of so-called ‘decentralisation’ seemed to hand ‘power’ to the
local level – the school itself, cutting out the local authorities - it actually increased the power of the
Central Government by cutting out the local authority. On top of that, the Conservative Government
increased their centralised control by introducing a National Curriculum which all schools had to
follow. This culminated in a new national, government-controlled qualification called the GCSE
(General Certificate of Secondary Education).
Another Conservative Government idea behind this was the government’s ideology about the
‘market’. They felt that the ‘market’ was the best way to regulate all aspects of society. So, in this
case, they allowed parents to decide to which schools they wanted to send their children. They felt
that this would allow the funding to follow the students. This put schools in competition for students
(it also introduced ‘League Tables’)
HIGHER EDUCATION
There has been increased access to higher education (university) since 1945, with more universities
built, and, particularly since the building of the new ‘red brick’ universities in the 1960s, and
especially since the reforms of the New Labour Party in the late 1990s, more students entering them.
ASSESSMENT
If the original aim was an egalitarian society, did these reforms achieve it?
Class distinctions remained.
School achievement was easily correlated with socio-economic levels. Schools in poorer areas tended
to have lower achievement rates.
Students from richer backgrounds tended to have a greater chance of attending university.
Moreover, none of these changes really touched the traditional British private schools (known as
‘Public Schools’) where the richest elite were educated.
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RELIGION
It is often said that the 20th century saw society undergo a process known as ‘secularisation’.
This means, basically, that people believe less in God, or in traditional religious explanations of life
and the world, and no longer believe institutionalised religions should control society.
In the UK the dominant religion is Protestant. In England it is known as Anglican (The Church of
England. And the reigning monarch is the head – the Pope is only the head of the Catholic Church. He
has no authority in the Church of England)
By 1950, about 25% of the people had no religious affiliation, and even fewer regularly attended
church.
The first 6 decades saw a slight rise in the number of Roman Catholics (especially in Northern
Ireland).
The numbers of so-called Nonconformists also fell (Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians, Methodists etc)
The increased functions of the Welfare State took away some of the roles of institutionalised religion
– i.e. looking after the poor and the sick.
Concepts of universality and equality undermined the traditional hierarchical notion of charity
dispensed by the rich to the poor.
5The UK was not at all like the USSR, a communist regime in which religion was forbidden, and the
State tried to destroy it)
The 1960s saw a movement to get all churches to be more ‘liberal’ in terms of traditional morality (re
sex, relationships, social comportment). In the Catholic Church this movement is known as Vatican II.
But do not forget that post war UK saw the diversification of the Christian Church and the increase of
other religions that came with increasing immigrant culture.
The 1970s saw a growth in ‘evangelical’ Christian Churches, and the ‘new’ religions of Hari Krishna
and Baha’I, and Scientology.
There was also an influx of other non-Christian religions:
1945-2000 saw the jewish community decline – though 1956 in Hungary and the fall of the Iron
curtain brought more into the UK.
In the 2001 Census, there were quarter of a million declared Jews., mostly centred in London.
Muslim population has increased rapidly since the 1970s ‘1.6 million in 2001, it has tripled since
1970).
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