Policy Entrepreneurs and the Origins of Social Policy: Child Labor Reform in 19th-Century Europe

• In Event: 212 - Regular Session. Comparative Historical Sociology: Historical Perspectives on State Policy Innovation

Abstract

Industrial child labor laws were the earliest manifestation of the regulatory welfare state. Why would states first devote their protective capacities to a population that was not only quite small, but entirely lacking in social voice or political power? Through case studies of the politics behind the first child labor laws in Germany and France, coupled with a (preliminary) case study of a failed child labor reform effort in Belgium, I argue that existing structural, political and institutional explanations for the emergence of social policy are insufficient to account for the origin and content of child labor laws. Drawing on Fligstein and McAdam’s (2012) theory of institutional entrepreneurship within fields, I present an actor-centered theory of policy change. This theory highlights the heretofore neglected role of socially-skilled policy entrepreneurs who act as essential mediators between structural, political and institutional conditions, fields, and policy outcomes. By comparing positive and negative cases of pre-1850 child labor law passage, I argue that variation in the timing of child labor law passage reflects variation in policy entrepreneurs’ ability to successfully navigate the constraints and opportunities presented by the political-institutional context of their respective policy fields.

Author

• Elisabeth Anderson, New York University Abu Dhabi