Sir William Beveridge, the architect of the British welfare state, was a prominent eugenicist who believed in the pseudo-science of improving the genetic quality of the human population. His approach to social reform was deeply intertwined with early 20th-century eugenic theories.

Early Stances

Long before drafting the famous Beveridge Report, he argued in 1909 that state-supported workers deemed "unemployable" or defective should face a "complete and permanent loss of all citizen rights – including not only the franchise but civil freedom and fatherhood".

Work at the LSE

During his time as Director of the London School of Economics (LSE) from 1919 to 1937, he was a member of the Eugenics Society and actively worked to create a Department of Social Biology to study genetics, population, and eugenics. He secured significant funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to support these studies. 

The Welfare State & "Reform Eugenics"

By the time Beveridge drafted his landmark 1942 blueprint for the modern welfare state (the Beveridge Report), his views shifted from mainline class-based eugenics toward "reform eugenics". He utilized the language of eugenics to advocate for children's allowances and comprehensive welfare, arguing that alleviating poverty and squalor would naturally improve the genetic and physical health of the next generation. In 1943, he delivered the Galton Lecture to the Eugenics Society, assuring his fellow eugenicists that his sweeping social proposals would achieve their goals of improving the population stock.