Ken KATO

In the early 20th century, discussions about the welfare state program took place mainly in European countries such as Britain, Germany and Belgium. It is now recognized that the beginning of the welfare state in the United States was the Social Security Act of 1935 (SSA), but there were actually various plans for coping with the questions of employment since the progressive era. The typical issue concerning social insurance was of unemployment insurance and old-age pension due to the background of recession resulting from the development of the American industry. This paper aims to investigate how the thought of John R. Commons's Wisconsin program affected Witte's vision of unemployment insurance and the old-age pension during the 1930's. Witte was caled "the Father of Social Security". In the context of the United States during the 1920s, it might be possible to classify the causes of unemployment into the following two patterns: First, though the workers had the desire and the ability to work, they were laid off or dismissed against their will; Second, the workers, namely "new immigrants," had never found nor could find employment up to that point. Concerning the unemployment insurance plan at that time, there were the following two types: First, the "Ohio Plan" that W. M. Leiserson and I. M. Rubinow had developed, was based on insurance against risk principles; Second, the "Wisconsin Plan" that Commons and J. B. Andrews propounded, had put emphasis on the prevention of unemployment through each employers' pay. What Witte intended was not to solve all the problems of the industry but to give protection to individuals against the many hazards of our modern economy. That protection for economic security combined unemployment insurance with other measures such as old-age pensions. Witte intended to realize the plan as a cooperative federal-state system of unemployment insurance based on tax offset in the SSA. With regard to the old-age pension in the SSA, there were two programs, being the Old-Age Assistance Program and the Old-Age Benefits Program. Witte believed that the amount of benefits of the "assistance program" should be based on those who would meet the "need". Witte pointed out problems of the "benefits program" from financial and operational aspects, but he sought to carry out the system of compulsory old-age pension by the federal government. Witte considered that the SSA was not intended to be called a cooperative federal-state system of social security, because there was insufficient distribution of income and the eligibility was based on a means test, which was also left to the discreation of local government. But on examining the historical context, Witte was the very embodiment of the "Wisconsin Idea". As a student of Commons at the University of Wisconsin during the progressive era, Witte absorded this idea from him. Therefore, it also has to be admitted that Witte knew that the only way to execute the social security program in reality was through compromise within the framework of realization of welfare.

In the early 20th century before the New Deal, a change took place in labor relations in the United States which was substantial enough to cause chronic unemployment. The purpose of this paper is to examine American thinking on social security during the 1910s, particularly the specific issue of what type of unemployment insurance was needed in the United States and, from a historical standpoint, to compare American ideas with those of European countries during the same period. The focus here is on two daring plans: the prevention of unemployment and the compensation for unemployment. Throu...

John Rogers Commons (1862-1945), one of the founders of American institutionalism, developed original ideas on economic democracy, collective bargaining, and a vision for "reasonable capitalism" in the economy of the changing American society of the first half of the 20th century. The purpose of this paper is to examine Commons's design for institutions able to function effectively not only amid the changing relationships between employer and employee, but also in the face of legal decisions made during the late 19th and early 20th century. To that end, I analyze specific issues that Common...