Böhm-Bawerk on English Workers’ Insurance (1887)

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk’s brief review of Wilhelm Hasbach’s Das englische Arbeiterversicherungswesen (1883) presents English experience as a historical counterpart to emerging German and Austrian insurance legislation. Its organizing distinction concerns how protection is provided:

Charakteristisch ist, dass, während die moderne continentale Arbeiterversicherung den Charakter einer zwangsweisen Versicherung mit Staatshilfe an sich trägt, die englische auf dem Princip der Freiheit und Selbsthilfe beruht.

English translation: It is characteristic that, whereas modern continental workers' insurance bears the character of a compulsory insurance with state aid, the English rests upon the principle of freedom and self-help.

The review moves from this institutional contrast to the benefits, weaknesses, and growth of the “friendly societies.” Regular member contributions chiefly support sickness and accident insurance; their resources scarcely suffice for old-age and disability coverage. Voluntary provision thus appears substantial but limited, not an unqualified model:

Sie litten und leiden noch unter allerlei Mängeln der Organisation und Verwaltung, die zu vielen Missbräuchen und häufig auch zur Insolvenz führen.

English translation: They suffered, and still suffer, from all manner of defects of organisation and administration, which lead to many abuses and frequently also to insolvency.

Böhm-Bawerk then stresses expansion despite these failings. In 1876, the 13,000 societies supplying regular reports alone had over five million members; Hasbach estimates workers’ annual insurance expenditure from their own resources at nearly £8 million. These figures establish the practical significance of self-help without resolving its organizational weaknesses. Closing with praise for Hasbach’s instructive historical account, the review makes English experience relevant to continental debate without explicitly recommending that it replace compulsory, state-supported insurance.