| Popis: |
In the summer of 1867 Zurich, Switzerland, was struck by a severe Cholera outbreak. Recent research suggests that the Cholera epidemic had such an influence on the municipal policy makers that they pushed through a major reform of the public health system, namely of water supply and sewerage. This paper adopts a theoretical conception of crisis and social change to evaluate the plausibility of this hypothesis. The basic idea is that structural change can be usually understood as the consequence of a major social crisis. Exactly this was the case in Zurich during the 1860s. After a decade of economic stability and progress, a severe crisis simultaneously stuck Zurich's agriculture, textile industry and railway companies. The so called Democratic Movement threatened the existing political system; the old political establishment feared a political revolution. On top of all this, Cholera struck Zurich, precipitating a crisis in the public health system. Suddenly, old concepts and institutions were felt to be outdated. The democrats put through political reforms, the economic downswing ended and a large program to reshape the urban environment was initiated. It can be concluded that the Cholera epidemic alone did not cause the public health reform. But together with other crisis phenomena it played a major role in weakening the stability of the old system, and thus contributed to the society's ability to put in place new political, economic, and social structures. |
