A Semantic Analysis of Responsibility

The Formation Process of Social Policy in Late 19th-Century Germany

Abstract

This article investigates the historical semantics of “responsibility” in the formation of social policy in late nineteenth-century Germany, with particular attention to the introduction of accident insurance. Modernization and the functional differentiation of labor unsettled the classical model of responsibility, paving the way for a “post-classical” model centered on the prevention of future harms. In Germany, the reconfiguration of Polizei and the rise of industrial accidents proved decisive. Whereas the 1860s emphasized freedom and self-responsibility, the 1870s saw debates extend responsibility beyond causal attribution to encompass employers and the state ; by the 1880s, these discussions culminated in insurance as a paradigm of preventive responsibility. The Accident Insurance Law of 1884 institutionalized this shift by acknowledging the state’s “responsibility for inaction,” legitimizing solidarity through compulsory insurance, and complementing individual freedom and self-help. Thus, the semantics of responsibility shifted from attributing causes to assuming obligations for problem-solving, gradually institutionalizing a balance between individual autonomy and social solidarity. By tracing this historical formation, the article provides a conceptual framework for critically reassessing contemporary discourses of self-responsibility.