The “Good Citizen” as a “Respectable Worker:” State, Unemployment, and Social Policy in the United Kingdom and Italy, 1930 to 1950

Abstract

This article approaches “good citizenship(s)” in its historical connection with the status of “worker.” It scrutinizes how and to what extent the perception of the “good citizen” changed from the Great Depression to the foundations of the post‐war welfare state. It compares unemployment policies in the United Kingdom and Italy from the 1930s to the early 1950s, to grasp how these schemes reflected the shifting features of “good citizenship(s).” The article emphasizes policy legacies that reshaped citizenship and the attached social rights after 1945. These continuities rest in the link between the full participation to the political community and “work” as a distinguishing trait of the “good citizen” deserving social benefits. Apparently diluted by the post‐war “Marshallian consensus,” these deep‐seated understandings resurfaced with contemporary workfare systems. The connection between “good citizenship” and “work” lends itself to further transdisciplinary studies on the theoretical and political foundations of today's welfare systems. Related Articles in this Special Issue Barrault‐Stella, Lorenzo, and Thomas Douniès. 2021. “Introduction to the Special Issue: Citizenship as a Tool of Government in Europe.” Politics & Policy 49 (4). Ewert, Benjamin. 2021. “Citizenship as a Form of Anticipatory Obedience? Implications of Preventive Health Policy in Germany.” Politics & Policy 49 (4). Haapajärvi, Linda. 2021. “On the Importance of Playing House: Belonging‐Work and the Making of Relational Citizens in Finnish Immigrant Integration Policies.” Politics & Policy 49 (4).