Social question

The term social question refers to the social grievances that accompanied the Industrial Revolution and the following population explosion, that is, the social problems accompanying and resulting from the transition from an agrarian to an urbanizing industrial society. In England, the beginning of this transition was to be noted from about 1760, in Germany from the early 19th century. For quite some time before that, dramatic misery of large population groups crystallized. In Germany, a first phase covered about the first half of the 19th century. It was characterized by a rapidly growing population that created a wage-earning proletariat, peasant liberation, rural exodus and urbanization, the decline of the old trades and a gradual emergence of the factory industry.

The term was used in Germany by the 1840s, "soziale Frage" as well as in France "question sociale" and in the Netherlands as the "sociale vraagstuk."^[1][2][3]

The core problems of the social question were pauperism and the existential insecurity of peasants, rural servants, artisans, laborers, and small clerks. These problems led to strikes and even riots.^[4]

Over time, the problem shifted. Between about the 1850s and the 1870s, industry experienced a strong upswing, while the decline of cottage industries and the crisis of the crafts continued. A third phase in Germany, beginning around 1870, was marked by high industrialization and the transition to an industrial society. The social question now became primarily a workers' question. Mass migration from the countryside to the urban industrial centers, phenomena accompanying the formation of large cities and the social integration of the industrial workforce preoccupied political leaders as well as the bourgeois public. Depending on the perception of the problem and the interests at stake, different approaches to the social question were developed.^[5]

Consequences

The social question resulted in riots, strikes and the foundation of unions and parties. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto trying to give an answer to the problems resulting from the industrialisation.^[6] The German Kaiserreich developed social laws, such as a public health insurance, pension system and an unemployment insurance to share social safety with their populations and avoiding socialist revolutions.^[7] Being able to produce large amounts of goods on the one hand and creating wealth for a limited group of people while some groups remain poor in a materialistic or intellectual way on the other hand is still an important economic and philosophic challenge to solve.

The European Union is focused on obtaining social rights to defuse the social question.^[8]

References