Abstract
In 1957, the Labour Party published radical proposals for a state earnings-related pension scheme (‘national superannuation’) whose funds were to be invested in stock markets to generate high returns, and to help modernize and dynamize the British economy. This article explores a sophisticated campaign against the proposal by the insurance industry, and the resistance of the unions. In doing so, it considers the implications of this cross-class alliance, not least in terms of a possible missed opportunity to build a ‘developmental state’ in the UK, but also in terms of the country’s increasingly inadequate and inequitable system of pension provision.
Translated title of the contribution | The failure of ‘nationalization by attraction’: Britain’s cross-class alliance against earnings-related pensions in the 1950s |
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Original language | English |
Pages (from-to) | 1428-1449 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Economic History Review |
Volume | 65 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2012 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher: Economic History SocietyOther: REF 1
Keywords
- Pensions
- Labour party