ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the 'reform of unemployment insurance', which made the material crisis in unemployment provision of 1928/9 a crucial element in the general debate on the Weimar economic and social constitution which marked the beginning of the decline of parliamentary democracy. The extent to which the parties on the labour market still relied on the efficiency of a rationalised industry can be seen from the relatively low unemployment rate on which the system of unemployment insurance was constructed in 1927. The system of self-administration in unemployment insurance was for the employers rather a means of restraining public expenditure policy than the expression of a common obligation to lessen the 'social risk' of unemployment. The wage policy function of unemployment insurance was also clear to the unions. The unions regarded the employers' demands for 'arbitration reform' and 'reform of unemployment insurance' as an 'attack on those achievements in post-war policy which will safeguard the wages level'.
