How did F. A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and Sir William Beveridge’s Social Insurance and Allied Services shape the politics of the welfare state in the United States and the United Kingdom?
Beveridge targeted "five giants"; want, disease, ignorance, squalor, and idleness, all needed solutions from the welfare state.
In The Road to Serfdom F. A. Hayek warned that allowing the government the powers needed to enact a welfare state risked undermining political liberty.
Beveridge’s and Hayek’s dispute over expert control of economic and social policy was a manifestation of a much deeper disagreement, known as the "Knowledge Problem".
Bolstered by support from the British government, Social Insurance and Allied Services recieved a warm & popular reception.
The Road to Serfdom arrived in the spotlight just as public opinion was turning against the New Deal.