1468-0289/asset/ehr_left.gif?v=1&s=d87d15288af1b8c4c4348557e44e487183746436)
1468-0289/asset/ehr_centre.gif?v=1&s=77ee319655ac7d0343b586cecd349af67bad613f)
1468-0289/asset/ehr_right.gif?v=1&s=b207f15c831aaf22393a4b55f1fac6401f7142f8)
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The failure of ‘nationalization by attraction’: Britain's cross-class alliance against earnings-related pensions in the 1950s†
Article first published online: 11 OCT 2011
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2011.00634.x
© Economic History Society 2011
Additional Information
How to Cite
Pemberton, H. (2012), The failure of ‘nationalization by attraction’: Britain's cross-class alliance against earnings-related pensions in the 1950s. The Economic History Review, 65: 1428–1449. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2011.00634.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 8 OCT 2012
- Article first published online: 11 OCT 2011
- Date submitted 14 April 2009; Revised version submitted 4 May 2011; Accepted 23 June 2011
- Abstract
- Article
- References
- Cited By
In 1957, the Labour Party published radical proposals for a state earnings-related pension scheme (‘national superannuation’) whose funds were to be invested in stock markets to generate high returns, and to help modernize and dynamize the British economy. This article explores a sophisticated campaign against the proposal by the insurance industry, and the resistance of the unions. In doing so, it considers the implications of this cross-class alliance, not least in terms of a possible missed opportunity to build a ‘developmental state’ in the UK, but also in terms of the country's increasingly inadequate and inequitable system of pension provision.