UDC

[94:14:364.22](420)“15/1640”

Authors

Salamatova Olga Valeryevna,
Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Institute of Social, Humanitarian and Political Sciences

Abstract

The article deals with the common wealth theory as one of the ideological grounds for the implementation of the English Poor Law of 1601. Analysis of the works of the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries shows that the regulatory role of the state in the social sphere was generally recognized by the authors and reveals stability of the traditional interpretation of common wealth under the rise of the royal prerogative. In order to pass the law, the Early Stuart government had to resort to alternative common wealth conceptions in the crisis periods. The author finds that the common wealth theory became a field of ideological compromise in the sphere of social policy.

Keywords

England, ideology, common wealth theory, poverty, social policy.