Lydia Morris Dangerous Class

The next piece of writing I am analyzing is written by Lydia Morris and is called “Dangerous Class; the Underclass and Social Citizenship”. Morris focuses on the underclass and the emergence of social rights. She also discusses T. H. Marshall and uses his views to reinforce her own in regards to the incremental implementation of social rights. Morris begins by discussing the poor in 17th century Britain; they were seen as a burden, and vagrancy had been outlawed. In 1601 The Poor Law Act was established, it allowed overseers the power to impose a tax on property in order to raise money for the poor. However, this was not done out of good will, but more to rid the country of the ugliness of the destitute. In further attempts to alleviate the

It was to be “a remedy for fluctuation in employment, not for unemployment”, it excluded the majority of the poor, helping only seven trades that were known to be seasonal in employment. By the end of the 19th century and going into the 20th century, you see the state make a bigger effort to help people, but these cannot be considered social rights because they are conditional and do not extend to all members of society. The establishment of true social rights were constantly in question, there was a back and forth between helping just the incentivized poor, and helping all who were considered poor. So far true social rights were losing the battle in that the minimum that was granted had been separate from the status of citizenship. The Beveridge Report sought to adopt a welfare state that provided a minimum standard of living for all, but there was agreement that without limitations on aid there would certainly be those who would abuse the system. Restrictions were placed on how one would qualify for aid, and the level of benefits were set at an amount that allowed one to purchase food, clothing, and fuel, but nothing