A Post-War Vision of Social Welfare: The Global Dissemination and Local Reception of the Beveridge Report

Most accounts of the Beveridge Report are limited to Great Britain or the European reception, neglecting its global influence on welfare thought. However, I argue that the Beveridge Report was not merely a blueprint for the British welfare state, but the progenitor of a global Beveridge moment, where across the world, the report was perceived as a stimulating idea for a socially secure society after World War II. Government officials and grassroots activists ranging from Jamaica to China started initiatives to reform or establish welfare systems. The idea was channeled through the British imperial system, expert networks and international organisations. Locally it inspired divergent, even contradicting political claims, igniting and enhancing worldwide debates about the ideal figure of burgeoning welfare states. By unearthing the Beveridge Report's global history, the 1940s can be reassessed as a transformative decade for welfare thought globally.