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Special Study #2:
Professor Theron Schlabach on "Rationality and Welfare"
In 1968 the Social Security Administration commissioned a study by Professor
Theron Schlabach of the History Department of Goshen College. The purpose
of the study was to examine the period prior to the passage of the Social
Security Act of 1935 to identify and trace some of the major intellectual
developments in the years prior to the adoption of the Social Security
program. In particular, Professor Schlabach's report focuses on one major
theme from this period, the interplay between traditional personalized
approaches to the problem of economic security versus the development
of institutional structures designed to "rationalize" responsibility
for the problem of economic security. As Professor Schlabach convincingly
documents, this was a major philosophical theme within American thought
for many years and was an important issue in the public policy debates
leading up to the passage of the Social Security Act.
Professor Schlabach illustrates his central thesis by recounting the
positions and the actions of each of the major players in the public policy
debates about economic security: chartiable organizations; the social
insurance movement; social workers; the medical profession; business;
labor unions; and policy experts. It will be illuminating for many readers
to learn what the role and positions of each of these interest groups
was in the debates leading up to the Social Security Act. Especially noteworthy
is the extended Bibliographic Essay Professor Schlabach provides at the
end of his manuscript. This is a handy guide to the literature as it existed
at the end of the 1960s.
Professor Schlabach's study was published internally within SSA in September
1969, under the title "Rationality and Welfare: Public Discussion
of Poverty and Social Insurance in the United States 1875-1935."
Although Professor Schlabach's study has been widely read within SSA,
it has never before been published or made available to a broader audience.
We are therefore very pleased to be able to make available, for the first
time, the full text of Professor Schlabach's 1969 study.
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| Professor Theron
Schlabach, 10/18/01. SSA History Archives. |
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Author's Comments, 2001
After thirty-two more years of active history
scholarship I still believe that the report that I made to the Social
Security Administration in 1969 was a highly worthwhile contribution
to scholarship. Therefore I am delighted to cooperate with the Administration's
Archivist, Mr. Larry DeWitt, as he makes it available on the internet.
To be sure, the report is not quite a polished book. In the years
since 1969 I have developed quite an appreciation for the contribution
that editors make to books (especially because I have edited quite
a few myself). Also, I surely understand the value of peer review,
peer comment, peer advice. I am confident the reader will find that
"Rationality and Welfare" is solid scholarship; but I
also am keenly aware that it never got the full treatment from editors
and peers.
The thesis of the report is that, in the six decades of U.S. public
discussion about social insurance that preceded the historic Social
Security Act of 1935, there were many issues and nuances but one
central question. That question was whether to view dependency in
highly personal terms or whether to approach the problem as an institutional
one that called for large-scale systemic solutions. I can hardly
claim to be an unbiased judge of my own argument. But I still do
believe, quite firmly, that my thesis was valid and that the issues
and evidence I discussed around that thesis offer much that is helpful
for understanding the history and formation of Social Security in
the United States.
At the same time, were I to rewrite the manuscript today, I would
surely make some changes. Among them would be two that are quite
basic. One would be to soften the dichotomy between the personal
and the institutional approach. In short, were I to write today
I probably would work less with how those two approaches opposed
each other and more with how they can complement one another. The
other is that I would do considerably more reading in organizational
theory. Especially, I would refine my understanding and use of the
concept of organizational "rationalization." In 1969 that
concept was quite central to my analysis. It even accounts for my
title. Today I would want to hone, sharpen, and test it quite a
bit further.
Nonetheless, I still judge the report to be very worthwhile as it
is. It is what it claims to be: an investigation into a public
discussion. It makes no pretense of exploring unpublished sources
in archives; but it does deliver a great amount of material which
is not readily available elsewhere since much of the material is
from published sources that are quite obscure. Moreover, although
possibly biased, my editorial eye still finds its prose to be eminently
readable.
Those features--solid research, offering relatively untapped evidence,
and good communication of findings--are of course key tests of valid
scholarship. I still judge that "Rationality and Welfare"
meets those tests. So I am delighted to cooperate with Mr. DeWitt
to make it more available.
Theron F. Schlabach
Goshen College, November 2001 |
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www.socialsecurity.gov
