Abstract

This chapter demonstrates the dependence of William Beveridge's welfare state on the positive use of leisure. The welfare state was to be a social service state. Through voluntary action, leisure would help improve the conditions of life for the individual and the community. To Beveridge, leisure was a social service. No community, according to Beveridge, could be well managed unless there were sufficient people with the aptitude, training and the leisure to undertake essential civic duties. This chapter explores the theorisation and implementation of the social policy of leisure in the welfare state with cross-reference to the evolution of the meaning of leisure since the start of the twentieth century. It also reviews the role of leisure in the implementation of the welfare state under Clement Attlee.