This supplementary volume to Beveridge’s important work Voluntary Action sets out some of the important material on which the Report is based, and amplifies it by giving views and statements of fact submitted by many experts in the fields covered by his Inquiry.

It is the author’s contention that an abundance of voluntary action outside the citizen’s home, both individually and collectively, for bettering his own and his fellows’ lives, are the distinguishing marks of a truly free society. This volume is a study of how such action can be kept alive in the face of the inevitable development of State action and suggests the new forms which co-operation between the State and voluntary Organizations may take, leaving a maximum of freedom and responsibility to the individual. Voluntary Action is a text of unique value because Beveridge here develops his vision of how a large ‘voluntary action’ sector could function as a type of buffer zone between the state and the market.

This supplementary volume to Beveridge’s important work Voluntary Action sets out some of the important material on which the Report is based, and amplifies it by giving views and statements of fact submitted by many experts in the fields covered by his Inquiry.

The editors have chosen substantial extracts to illustrate the major themes and ideas in Beveridge’s writing over a period of more than four decades, ranging from his book Unemployment, published in 1909, to the Beveridge Report of 1942 and beyond. Sections cover his social philosophy; the crucial role he attributed to social insurance as a technique of welfare; his relation to economics; and the stress he placed on voluntary action in a free society. Each theme is introduced by a full editorial commentary which explains its place in Beveridge’s thought, as well as outlining his position and offering critical guidance to the reader. The return of mass unemployment and continuing debate on the role of the welfare state has revived interest in Beveridge’s work and this reader brings his ideas.

This new edition of Harris's biography of William Beveridge draws upon extensive new archive material about his private and public career. It expands the account given in the first edition of the origins and reception of the Beveridge Plan, and shows how the tortuous character of Beveridge's personal and emotional history helped to shape his contribution to twentieth-century social reform.

Beveridge defined full employment as a state where there are slightly more vacant jobs than there are available workers, or not more than 3% of the total workforce. This book discusses how this goal might be achieved, beginning with the thesis that because individual employers are not capable of creating full employment, it must be the responsibility of the state. Beveridge claimed that the upward pressure on wages, due to the increased bargaining strength of labour, would be eased by rising productivity, and kept in check by a system of wage arbitration. The cooperation of workers would be secured by the common interest in the ideal of full employment. Alternative measures for achieving full employment included Keynesian-style fiscal regulation, direct control of manpower, and state control of the means of production. The impetus behind Beveridge's thinking was social justice and the creation of an ideal new society after the war. The book was written in the context of an economy which would have to transfer from wartime direction to peace time. It was then updated in 1960, following a decade where the average unemployment rate in Britain was in fact nearly 1.5%.