CANALEJAS' NON-LABOR SOCIAL POLICY: GUIDELINES AND CONTENT

In this article, we analyze the contribution of the Spanish intellectual and politician Jose Canalejas y Mendez (1854-1912), as regards his proposals for non-labor social policy. From a progressive liberal position, Canalejas played a prominent role in the Bourbon Restoration, especially during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first of the twentieth, years in which he was the head of five ministries, the Presidency of the Congress of the Deputies, and the Council of Ministers. After the Disaster of '98, he tried to undertake the major reforms that Spain needed at that time, including social policies, both labor and non-labor. In this article we focus on the latter. After a brief review of Canalejas' biography, followed by a brief description of the historical, political, economic and social context in which he lived, we examine the guidelines of his thoughts as regards social policy; social liberalism, social reformism versus revolutionary socialism, and state interventionism. In addition, we analyze his contribution to non-labor social policy in education, public health, social insurance and social assistance