Los límites de la acción social en la España del siglo XIX asistencia y salud pública en los orígenes del Estado Liberal

Abstract

This article tries to explain how the first welfare laws were enacted in nineteenth-century Spain. After the Liberal Revolution, the Ancien Régime´s system of social assistance, based on poor relief by the Church, came to an end. The new rulers needed to establish a new system, bearing in mind not only the social and political change, but also the economic changes resulting from the industrial and liberal revolutions. There was not a single solution accepted by everyone. There were disagreements not only between the two liberal parties (moderate and progressive), but also within each party. The parliamentary debates on the welfare and health acts of 1849 and 1855 were clear examples of how these discussions reflected the spirit of the emerging Spanish liberalism.