Czechoslovak national insurance : a contribution to the pattern of social security the Czechoslovak National insurance act.

  • Czechoslovakia
Date:
[1948]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Czechoslovak national insurance : a contribution to the pattern of social security the Czechoslovak National insurance act. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/240 page 7
    INTRODUCTION by Evžen Erban, Czechoslovak Minister of Social Welfare ik IN REPROSPECT On the 15th of April 1948 the Czechoslovak National Assembly adopted the National Insurance Act, which I am now presenting to the English-speaking public. This Act is an important milestone not only as regards the progress of social policy, but as regard the whole of the Czechoslovak national economy. I should like to use this opportunity to explain why this Act, the realization of which played such a prominent part in the February events and which was one of the main positive results of these events, is of such outstanding import- ance. It will be useful to ask ourselves how the idea of social insurance as a public institution originated in Central Europe, and why it has reached the level demonstrated by this Act. The idea of social security as opposed to private charity originated as early as the end of the feudal era, i.e. a short time before the discovery of the new continents beyond the Atlantic Ocean. The notions of the Spanish humanist Vives (1492—1540), regarding the establishment of public hospitals, the care of the sick and the necessitous, of orphans and deserted children; his vision of public social care replacing charity—though it attracted some attention in Western Europe and was even put into practice in some isolated cases, and up to a point (the English Poor Laws of 1601)—did not, I think, bring about a greater general awareness of the duty of society towards the individual among the nations of the West. The reason for this may. withouts.doubt,be- sought an the- fact. that the opening-up and colonisation of the New World provided a refuge and a means of livelihood for the masses of the
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3