Social Policy before Welfare States: Subsidiary Social Provision in Nineteenth-Century Belgium

Since the emergence of the modern welfare state, considerable research attention has been devoted to its origins. Recently, some historians have challenged the teleological views often found in these accounts, arguing that systems of social provision have always included not only the state, but also the commercial, voluntary, and informal sectors to varying degrees. Nineteenth-century Belgium constitutes an interesting case in this respect. Its liberal constitution as well as different foreign influences shaped a particular field of social provision, consisting of an interplay between government and private, voluntary welfare providers. This was especially true in the fields of health care and poor relief, in which local governments, religious congregations and philanthropic societies were arguably the most important actors. Central government also took part in this system, although it was not until the early twentieth century that central government gradually started to play its full role in welfare programs. This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of modern welfare states, by tracing back its origins to the ‘mixed economy of social welfare’ in nineteenth-century Belgium. What did this system of mutual dependency between government and private providers look like, and how did it develop into the twentieth-century state welfare system known as ‘subsidized liberty’? I argue that in nineteenth-century Belgium a system of ‘subsidiary social provision’ prevailed, in which responsibilities were left to private, voluntary providers as much as possible, with the government only providing financial support or, in the event of insufficient provision, organizing its own initiatives. While the complex set of justifications changed from a more traditionalist approach to more accountability, the basic principles underlying this system remained largely the same.