Sources A And D Essay

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Study Sources A and D. Compare these Sources as evidence for attitudes to State intervention in dealing with poverty. Sources A and D are both quite useful in providing evidence of the attitudes to State intervention in dealing with poverty, which became a recognised problem in 1899 with the surveys of Booth and Rowntree, causing more people to see poverty as a problem. Source A was written by a Liberal politician who argued that State intervention was necessary, that conditions needed solving, and that Old Liberalism wasn’t working. His argument is backed up by the surveys of Booth and Rowntree from 1899, which found that out of 46,754 people, 20,32 of them were living in ‘primary poverty’; they didn’t have enough food, fuel or clothing to keep them in good health. Source D, written by a leading sociologist, agreed that state intervention was needed, but differentiated in the way that he believed that it linked to individual liberties too, and that the individual owes the state duties as well. The author found that the State and workers should work together, and that State intervention should provide jobs and wages, but not necessarily benefits. Hobhouse’s views are supported…show more content…
Source A was written in 1902, at which point the Conservatives were in power, and had made many mistakes such as decisions about the Boer War, through Balfour. On top of this, the Liberals were getting stronger and more popular, and their ideas (such as free trade and Campbell-Bannerman’s broadchurch approach), were appealing more and more to the public. Source D, however, was written in 1911, when the Liberals had been in power since their ‘landslide victory’ in 1906, winning by a huge majority. Despite the decrease in support since then, the Liberals were still popular, as they had brought in some popular reforms such as the Trade Disputes Act in 1906, and the introduction of old age pensions in
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