The Social Credit Movement in Comparative Perspective

• In Event: The Development of Welfare States and Social Policy

Abstract

The Social Credit movement was prominent in the politics of various English-speaking democracies from the 1920s until the late 1980s. Advocating for an unorthodox economic policy, including a prototypical version of what is now known as universal basic income, Social Credit Parties arose in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Utilizing archival primary sources, this paper will examine the ideology of social credit in historical and comparative perspective, focusing on Canada and New Zealand, where the movement was most successful, electing representatives to their respective national parliaments for decades. Yet its core policy goals were never carried out, even in Alberta, where Social Credit politicians held power from 1935-1971.

Author

• Andrew Kirkpatrick, Christopher Newport University