The failure of ‘nationalization by attraction’: Britain’s cross-class alliance against earnings-related pensions in the 1950s

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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 contributionThe failure of ‘nationalization by attraction’: Britain’s cross-class alliance against earnings-related pensions in the 1950s
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1428-1449
Number of pages22
JournalEconomic History Review
Volume65
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2012

Bibliographical note

Publisher: Economic History Society
Other: REF 1

Keywords

  • Pensions
  • Labour party

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