Capitalism, Corporate Liberalism and Social Policy: The Origins of the Social Security Act of 1935

Authors

Barbara G. Brents, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1984

Publication Title

Mid-American Review of Sociology

Volume

9

Issue

1

First page number:

23

Last page number:

40

Abstract

This paper looks at the involvement and influence of capitalists on the Social Security Act of 1935. Instead of positing direct corporate control, the research shows how social security was formulated within a corporate liberal ideological framework which defined problems and their solutions in terms of putting the maintenance of capitalism above the needs of individual workers. This framework set the limits of the, social insurance debates long before the act itself was written. The thesis is that the Social Security Act came about as a result of an interplay between the environment and an ideology advanced by corporate leaders and reform-minded academicians.

Keywords

Capitalists and financiers; Corporations; Employees; Reformation; Social security; Social Security Act (United States)

Disciplines

Inequality and Stratification | Politics and Social Change | Sociology | Work, Economy and Organizations

Language

English

Permissions

Copyright University of Kansas. Used with permission.

Repository Citation

Brents, B. G. (1984). Capitalism, Corporate Liberalism and Social Policy: The Origins of the Social Security Act of 1935. Mid-American Review of Sociology, 9(1), 23-40.
https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/sociology_pubs/81