ABSTRACT
This chapter examines with particular reference to the contrasting response of different groups of civil servants to the problems of social policy. The period between the First World War and the foundation of the welfare state has received comparatively little attention, despite the pioneering work of the two civilian war histories and the availability, since the mid-1960s, of most relevant government records. The First World War changed, or at least accelerated a change, in the basic organisation, management and responsibilities of the Civil Service. The chapter also reviews the innovatory record of the inter-war Civil Service. The innovatory record of inter-war bureaucracy can be upheld on two general counts. First, the British Civil Service never permanently blocked, for political or other motives, policy innovation in the way that bureaucracy in the USA resisted the implementation of the New Deal. Secondly, when political leadership was forthcoming, officials responded.
