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In the closing paragraphs of the book, the authors say Understanding Social Welfare Movements has shown the continuing relevance of social movements to struggles over welfare historically, theoretically and empirically. To be sure, they do an impressive job of showing how the post-World War II 'golden age' of the welfare state, which provided the terrain for the emergence of 'new social (welfare) movements', was the outcome of hard-fought-for historical struggles over civil rights and social justice. It is important, I think, we remember that, when in an era of international terrorism and global neoliberalism, we often witness the flouting of many liberal democratic principles.
One gets a definite sense of the history from coverage on Chartism and the Great Unrest of 1910-14 (Chapter 1) as well as poor peoples' movements against the Poor Laws and the food riots (Chapter 2); struggles, that is, for material improvements or what the authors term, somewhat quaintly, the 'politics of the belly' (p. 7). While there were 'moments of madness' (e.g. pp. 92-3), one also has a sense that the accomplishments of historical social movements were born of gradual reform and concession. Social movement successes were the result of class struggle and, intriguingly, a precursor to 'third way' politics. Hence, the reforms of Conservative and Labour governments...