Beatrice Webb

Have you ever wondered how the idea came about that there is someone to help you through the process and defend your rights when negotiating with a company? We owe many other contributions to Beatrice Webb. Considered one of the founders of industrial relations in Britain, Webb is one of the outstanding women who have contributed to Socialism and the workers' movement.

Beatrice Webb biography

Fig. 1 – Beatrice Webb.

Beatrice Potter Webb was an English sociologist, economist, and social historian born in Gloucestershire in 1858. She first became involved in social issues as a voluntary rent collector in 1883. This experience led her to participate in a "Life and Work of the People in London" survey. She wrote articles like 'The Nineteenth Century, which dealt with life on the docks of London's East End.

In 1890, she met her husband, Sidney Webb, with whom she went on to publish many pro-socialist works. They had a long-lasting partnership. For example, they wrote A Constitution for the Socialist Commonwealth of Great Britain (1920) and The Death of Capitalist Civilisation (1923) together

At the end of 1905, Beatrice Webb was appointed to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws from 1906 to 1909. Webb was the lead author of this commission's Minority Report, which played an important role in dismantling the old Poor Laws and replacing them with the new social insurance systems.

After 1910, she abandoned the non-partisan stance, and during 1914, she and her husband became a significant force in building the Labour Party.

Webb, along with her husband, was an early and influential member of the Fabian Society. This socialist movement aimed to achieve socialism in Britain through gradual and slow reforms and therefore is a Social Democracy based organisation. The Fabian Society is a predecessor of the modern British Labour Party. Beatrice Webb also was one of the founders of the London School of Economics, which is today one of the most prestigious universities on the planet.

After the disappointing end of her husband Sidney's political career, Beatrice Webb lived in the Soviet Union in 1932 for two years. She was amazed by the country and the radical transformations that were taking place. The same year, she was the first woman to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

The Webbs spent the next three years writing their famous book, Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? (1935). The curious thing about this work is that they seemed to lose their belief in gradual social and political progress. Beatrice Potter Webb died in 1943 in Liphook, Hampshire.

Beatrice Webb: views and quotes on Socialism

Beatrice Webb argued that the combination of forces between workers and communities would gradually achieve a socialist system through democratic elections.

This view differs from the traditional Marxist-Leninist approach, which states that the only way to create a socialist system is through revolution. Webb was a vital member of the Fabian Society, a part of the early democratic socialist movement.

She was a key proponent of a gradualist approach to political change that is associated with Social Democracy today. Beatrice Webb and her husband also believed in a paternalistic form of socialism. That relied on using those of higher classes, rejecting the idea that the working class should be leading the movement with their party.

Many of her views were rooted in elitism. She believed that socialist ideas should be spread and led by those of a higher social class. We can see this attitude in one of her more famous quotes:

Beatrice Webb's collective bargaining

Beatrice Webb coined the term "collective bargaining" in 1891to describe the negotiation process between the employers' representatives and the employees' representatives to set the terms and conditions of employment. It describes the type of bargaining that has occurred since the formalisation of trade unions in the 18th century.

This scheme was presented as an alternative to individual negotiations and individual contracts. The idea of collective bargaining agreements did not arise to replace individual contracts, but rather that whatever was negotiated and agreed collectively was adhered to in the respective agreements of each employee.

Webb proposed a representative bargaining process, where compromises are reached between employers' representatives and workers' representatives. In Webb's description of this term, she highlights the relevance of collective action by employees in formalising group agreements.

Webb argued that collective bargaining is the most advanced form of creating a collective voice or representative voice, which generates a set of collaborative processes, conditions and rights that are embodied in in-laws.

Books by Beatrice Webb

Beatrice has an enormous body of books and writings. However, her bibliography is divided into two sections:

1. Books she wrote by herself;

2. Books she wrote with her husband.

The following table gives a brief bibliography of some of her most influential writing.

^{Table 1 – Beatrice Webb's brief bibliography.}

Among her works, we highlight some that we do not place on the table because they are her most recognised books, which are based on socialism:

• A Constitution for the Socialist Commonwealth of Great Britain (1920): This book reflected the views and ideas of Beatrice and Sidney Webb for a socialist Great Britain.

• The Decline of Capitalist Civilisation (1923): This work states the contradictions regarding the capitalist system that Beatrice and Sidney Webb saw in the early 20th century.

• Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? (1935): This book details the social and economic transformations that were taking place in the Soviet Union in the early 20th century.