ABSTRACT
The establishment of the Managed Economy Welfare State during and immediately after the Second World War represented a sea change in the role of government in the economy and in social provision. The provisions of the William Beveridge Report were implemented by the Churchill wartime Coalition Government, his Caretaker Government, and then by the Attlee Labour Government. The influence of the Federation of British Industries on the National Government seems to have been inconsiderable; but the war brought business and government closer together. The advent of the Managed Economy Welfare State or Positive State was not preceded by much effective preparation in terms of machinery of government. The tasks of imperial management, which loomed so large in the affairs of British government before the Second World War, were a very small part of its activities within a quarter of a century of the defeat of Japan.
