Joblessness and the Law Before the New Deal

Philip Harvey

Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law-Camden

Philip Harvey traces the historical development of the traditional poor law regime from Fourteenth Century England through the Great Depression. Professor Harvey argues that attitudes toward the jobless throughout this period were shaped by the assumption that all able-bodied individuals could find employment and that being unemployed was a function of personal choice. As this core assumption was eroded by both the development of the business cycle theory, and to a greater extent, by prolonged economic downswings, which fostered a more sympathetic view of the jobless, social policy adopted these new views. These new attitudes were given concrete form by the programs of the New Deal. Professor Harvey further argues that the traditional conservative view of unemployment assistance as creating a "crutch," or disincentives for finding work, is the direct descendant of the English poor law system, and that contemporary social policy proposals to eliminate or reduce such aid would be as ineffective today as they were six hundred years ago.

Vol. VI, No. 1, p.1 (1999)

Revised July 17, 2003 (MD)