SOCIAL SECURITY ACT

(Aug. 14, 1935), original U.S. legislation establishing a permanent national old-age pension system through employer and employee contributions; the system was later extended to include dependents, the disabled, and other groups. Responding to the economic impact of the Great Depression, 5,000,000 old people in the early 1930s joined nationwide Townsend clubs, promoted by Francis E. Townsend to support his program demanding a $200 monthly pension for everyone over the age of 60. In 1934 Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt set up a committee on economic security to consider the matter; after studying its recommendations, Congress in 1935 enacted the Social Security Act, providing old-age benefits to be financed by a payroll tax on employers and employees. Railroad employees were covered separately under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1934. The Social Security Act has been periodically amended, expanding the types of coverage, bringing progressively more workers into the system, and adjusting both taxes and benefits in an attempt to keep pace with inflation. Additional reading Nearly all countries make periodic reports summarizing their social security provisions; these are published every few years by the United States Social Security Administration, Office of Research, Statistics, and International Policy, with the title Social Security Programs Throughout the World. A second basic international source is The Cost of Social Security, published irregularly by the International Labour Office, which contains comparative tables of the costs, benefits, and financing of social security schemes. For the Common Market countries provisions are periodically summarized in Comparative Tables of the Social Security Systems in the Member States of the European Communities: General Systems, published by the Commission of the European Communities.A summary of the findings of comparative research is found in Harold L. Wilensky et al., Comparative Social Policy: Theories, Methods, Findings (1985). For economic aspects see L.D. McClements, The Economics of Social Security (1978). The International Labour Office report by 10 experts referred to in the text is Into the Twenty-First Century: The Development of Social Security (1984).The historical evolution of the schemes in Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Switzerland is described against a wide economic, social, and political background in Peter A. Khler and Hans F. Zacher (eds.), The Evolution of Social Insurance 18811981 (1982). For a penetrating comparison between Britain and Sweden, see Hugh Heclo, Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden: From Relief to Income Maintenance (1974). For the United States, see Bruno Stein, Social Security and Pensions in Transition: Understanding the American Retirement System (1980, reprinted 1983). Other historical studies of advanced societies include M.A. Jones, The Australian Welfare State: Growth, Crisis and Change, new ed. (1983); Dennis Guest, The Emergence of Social Security in Canada, 2nd ed. rev. (1985); and Brian Easton, Social Policy and the Welfare State in New Zealand (1980). For the evolution and current role of social security in developing countries, see James Midgley, Social Security, Inequality, and the Third World (1984).Descriptions of health insurance and health services in various western European countries are given in Brian Abel-Smith and Alan Maynard, The Organization, Financing, and Cost of Health Care in The European Community (1978); and Brian Abel-Smith, Cost Containment in Health Care: The Experiences of 12 European Countries, 197783 (1984). For other countries, see Michael Kaser, Health Care in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1976); Lee Soderstrom, The Canadian Health System (1978); Sidney Sax, A Strife of Interests: Politics and Policies in Australian Health Services (1984); and Medical Care Under Social Security in Developing Countries (1982), papers from a meeting of the International Social Security Association. Brian Abel-Smith