Agents of Reform

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This account reveals the origins of the welfare state, tracing its beginnings to early nineteenth-century child labor laws rather than the late nineteenth-century labor movement. Elisabeth Anderson illustrates how middle-class and elite reformers in Europe and the United States identified child labor as a threat to social order, leading to the establishment of regulatory welfare. These reformers formed alliances to navigate political obstacles and implemented groundbreaking employment protections. By the late nineteenth century, they collaborated with organized labor to create factory inspectorates, enhancing the state's ability to regulate industrial working conditions. The narrative includes seven detailed case studies from Germany, France, Belgium, Massachusetts, and Illinois, emphasizing the role of individual reformers. It challenges traditional explanations of welfare state development and proposes a new pragmatist field theory of institutional change. This approach moves beyond typical narratives focused solely on interests and institutions, offering a comprehensive understanding of how political actors' ideas and coalition-building strategies interact with these factors.