<Articles>Philanthropy and the Transformation of Britain in the Late 19th Century : With Special Reference to Voting Charities

個人情報保護のため削除部分あり一八七〇年代は近代英国史上、ひとつの大きな転換点とみなされている。社会、経済、政治、文化といった諸局面でまったく新たな展開がみられるのだ。とくに、「チャリティ」から「福祉国家」への転換がここで始まったとする見解は根強い。ではこの時期、チャリティはどのような圧力にさらされどのような帰結を見たのか。本稿では、「投票チャリティ」という一見ユニークな慈善方式とそれに対する突発的な廃絶運動の顛末に着目し、この問いへの解答を探った。その結果、「投票チャリティ」問題は、旧来のフィランスロピーの倫理と、やがて福祉国家をもたらすことになる新しい論理との相克として把握できることが明らかとなった。さらに、フィランスロピーと国家福祉が高水準で並存している現代英国の特殊事情の淵源をここに求めることも展望した。It has been often argued that the 1870s was the decisive moment when Great Britain's society, economy, and polity began to experience a series of transformations: from laissez-faire to state-intervention: from individualism to collectivism, and, above all, from irrational private charities (and cruel poor laws) to the systematic public welfare state. The present study challenges this last It has been often argued that the 1870s was the decisive moment when Great Britain's society, economy, and polity began to experience a series of transformations: from laissez-faire to state-intervention. From individualism to collectivism, and, above all, from irrational private charities (and cruel poor laws) to the systematic public welfare state. The present study challenges this last assumption by re-examining the state of philanthropy in the supposed age of transition. The case taken up here is that of "voting charities", or some of the voluntary societies which would provide relief to those "candidates" who won the "election" (285) by getting enough "votes" from donors and subscribers. This seemingly abnormal mode of relief had been adopted, since the late 18th century, by many charitable institutions throughout the British Isles and, in fact, quite seldom met criticism or censure. However, it suddenly met with a storm of condemnations during the relatively short period of early 1870s to the late 1880s. Through a detailed exploration of the agents, motives, contents, responses, and consequences of these fierce attacks, this paper reveals several significant facts: first, that both those who criticized and those who advocated voting charities shared the same basic belief that philanthropy as a whole must continue to be practiced; that despite this agreement, each held a different notion of how philanthropy should be conducted; and that voting charities remained virtually unscathed well into the 20th century despite the campaigns against them. Setting these findings in context, we reached a conclusion that this abortive assault on voting charities at the very time of "change" represented a conflict between the older ethic of the traditional individualistic philanthropy and the new logic of the nascent holistic state welfare. Therefore, although philanthropy suffered regular pressure for change in the late 19th century, it continued to flourish even in the age of welfare state through a defence of its motivating ethic