Capitalism, Corporate Liberalism and Social Policy: The Origins of the Social Security Act of 1935

Abstract

This paper looks at the involvement and influence of capitalists on the Social Security Act of 1935. Instead ofpositing direct corporate control, the research shows how social security was formulated within a corporate liberal ideological framework which defined problems and their solutions in terms ofputting the maintenance of capitalism above the needs ofindividual workers. This framework set the limits of the, social insurance debates long before the act itself was written. The thesis is that the Social Security Act came about as a result of an interplay between the environment and an ideology advanced by corporate leaders and reform-minded academicians.