Memoir on Pauperism: No. 2 (Rediscovered Riches)

The 'Memoir on Pauperism' was written in 1835 immediately after Alexis de Tocqueville had completed the first volume of Democracy in America. It was based on his visit to England in 1833, where he found that one-sixth of the population had been reduced to reliance on poor relief at a cost approaching nearly one-fifth of total national expenditure.
Today, 17% of the population are reliant on income support - a strikingly similar proportion to Tocqueville's 1833 estimate - and if the other means-tested benefits are included the figure is 27%. In her introduction, Gertrude Himmelfarb, one of the foremost historians of the nineteenth century, shows the relevance of Tocqueville's insights for the modern debate about welfare reform in both Britain and America.
Tocqueville began the 'Memoir' with the paradox that the most impoverished countries in Europe, like Spain and Portugal, had few paupers; while England, the wealthiest country at the time, had many. It had happened, he argued, as an unforeseen consequence of good intentions. As wealth had grown, those who prospered were not prepared to tolerate hardship in their midst. But, in truth, the paradoxical result of this early experiment in compulsory state welfare was that beneficiaries were degraded by their reduction to dependency.
In contrast, Tocqueville believed, voluntary charity at its best established a 'moral tie' between giver and receiver and, instead of encouraging dishonesty and 'working the system', it sought to strengthen character and restore independence. Today, Himmelfarb writes, we can more than ever appreciate Tocqueville's criticism of 'government charity' as an 'entitlement'.

Alexis de Tocqueville’s most famous work is Democracy in America. Gertrude Himmelfarb’s most recent book is The De-Moralization of America.