# Organizational Forms and Welfare Coalitions: Corporate Law and the Movement for Social Insurance in the US and UK

## TL;DR

This paper explores how legal definitions of trade unions influenced the formation of welfare coalitions in the US and UK around the turn of the twentieth century.

## Contribution

The paper introduces law as a key factor shaping political coalitions for welfare reform, beyond traditional factors like party systems or economic interests.

## Key findings

- Legal definitions of trade unions as voluntary associations or corporate bodies shaped welfare reform coalitions.
- The legal framework influenced political mobilization for social insurance in the US and UK.
- Law is shown to be constitutive of social relations, not merely reflective of them.

## Abstract

Scholars of the welfare state have long argued that, in liberal democracies, welfare state expansion depends on successful coalitions in its favour. Under what circumstances do these coalitions form? Party systems, economic interest, and political mobilisation have all been thought to influence the emergence of coalitions for welfare state expansion. In this article, I argue that law plays a critical role in facilitating the last of these factors. Drawing on a growing body of literature that sees law as constitutive of, rather than merely reflective of, social relations, I demonstrate that available legal forms meaningfully inform opportunities for welfare coalitions. In particular, I examine how debates over what a trade union is—a voluntary association of individuals, or a corporate body deserving of a state statute—shaped coalitions for welfare reform in the US and the UK at the turn of the twentieth century.