Women were another vulnerable group because they were always paid at a lower rate than men. There was no safety net for people who fell into poverty other than resorting to the ‘workhouse’ which had been established to deal with cases of extreme poverty in Trade unions had little power as the Taff Vale Incident of 1901 showed and Friendly Societies could only provide a limited amount of help. Attitudes to poverty in the early 20th century were quite unsympathetic many politicians from both the Liberal and Conservative party felt that poverty came from personal laziness. Both parties had an attitude of “laissez-faire” i.e. non interference from the government.
Italy's political system was similar to Britain's. Although, there were some important differences; Italy had no clear defined political parties and there was no two-way system. Poor and rural communities did not have the right to vote meaning that the politicians represented the small minority of wealthy and upper-middle class people. Transformismo was used often in this period,
To what extent was Italy politically and economically united, 1896-1914? Despite official unification in 1870, Italy still remained somewhat divided, especially so under the Liberal government, 1896-1914. Attempted reforms to ease political and economic divisions had limited success, such as the voting reform of 1912 to introduce universal male suffrage (which increased the popularity of socialism) and modernisation in industries such as steel and hydroelectricity (which consequently widened the North/South divide). Italy still remained partially divided, which prevented total unification, both politically and economically. Firstly, Italy was only partially politically united, namely due to a number of liberal policies.
From then on party leaders were erratic and kept changing, meaning there was little stability in the Conservative party, which made them vulnerable to attack. After Peel was beaten in the Corn Laws crisis, many strong leader figures left with him such as Gladstone. This meant the party was left with the back bench aristocracy who were not all that interested in the wellbeing of the party and let it deteriorate. This was not at all the only problem that the conservatives faced. The truth was that their policies simply did not appeal to the majority of the voting population any more.
The work of Booth and Rowntree had for the first time highlighted that fact that people were not in poverty just because they were lazy. The majority of the cases were caused by unemployment, sickness, old age, large families and low wages. The Liberals knew now if they were going to have a strong country and keep control of the country they needed to address this. They used data collected during 1905-1909 to come up with the Liberal reforms. During 1906-1914 the Liberals made a huge progress in beginning to deal with poverty but the reforms did not make a big a difference as first thought during this time so they were not completely successful in dealing with the issue of poverty.
To what extent had the pressing political problems of the 1800s been solved by 1914? After Italy’s unification in 1870 there were immediate political issues facing the new united Italy that needed to be addressed. The government that was formed was incredibly unorganized and not many people knew who was in charge at times, not only this but many of the politicians in power were incredibly corrupt and would happily take bribes, launder money and other underhanded, dishonest actions which would have been frowned upon had people known. The new united Italy was a liberal state which was actually one of the first of its kind, the Liberals had managed to oust the ruling families of each individual state, the old aristocracy and most importantly the pope. However this “liberal” Italy was actually more conservative at heart, the country was a monarchy and not a republic.
This left their economy in debt and they fell into a depression. The Nazi party was the one of the strongest and finally became stronger when Adolf Hitler became their leader. He strengthened the military, and he eventually got rid of the constitution. 5. How did authoritarian governments emerge in the different countries of Spain, Germany, and Italy?
This is demonstrated in documents 4, 5, and 6. Henry Haskell states that “The government undertook such far-reaching responsibility in affairs that the fiber of the citizens weakened” (Document 4) This shows that the decline of the empire was due to heavy taxation that couldn’t support the government. If the taxes couldn’t sustain the government then it wouldn’t be able to control the people. According to Montanelli “The military crisis was the result of… proud old aristocracy’s… shortage of children” (Document 5) This means that many children weren’t old enough to go into the military which caused the decrease of soldiers. With the lack of soldiers, it would be easier to invade Rome, which could’ve led to the decline of the Empire.
“How far was concern over Booth and Rowntree’s findings the real reason for the Liberal reforms between 1906 and 1914?” By the early twentieth century the Liberal Government was concerned that Britain was losing her status as a major industrial and military power. The reports of Booth and Rowntree found that 1/3 of the British population lived in poverty. It suggested that this was a main factor effecting employment, education, disease, life expectancy and more. This could be argued to be the main reason that evoked a sense of urgency for change from the people and the liberal Government. However, other reasons also played a part.
How did society's attitude change towards the poor from 1830-1914? How did the Government deal with poverty during this period? Before the 1830's people who were subject to poverty were looked upon as lazy and deserving of their situation. People of this time thought the main three causes of poverty was idealness, drunkenness and thriftiness. Factors that contributed to changes from this were help from social investigators like Booth and Rowntree, artistic contributions from Dickens and Dore and a realisation that the Boer's war impaired Britain’s national efficiency.