welfare state

Political system under which the state (rather than the individual or the private sector) has responsibility for the welfare of its citizens, providing a guaranteed minimum standard of life, and insurance against the hazards of poverty, illness, and social deprivation. Welfare services include social security, which makes provision against interruption of earnings through sickness, injury, old age, or unemployment. They take the forms of unemployment and sickness benefits, family allowances, and income supplements, provided and typically financed through state insurance schemes. The services also include health and education, financed typically through taxation, and the provision of subsidized ‘social housing’. Subsidized public transport, leisure facilities, and public libraries, with special discounts for the elderly, unemployed, and disabled, are other noncore elements of a welfare state.

The phrase ‘welfare state’ was first used by Alfred Zimmern in the late 1930s, to distinguish between the policies of the democracies and the ‘war state’ of Europe's dictators. Elements of a welfare system began to be constructed in parts of Western Europe from the late 19th century, with Germany taking the lead in 1883 with a compulsory national accident and sickness insurance law, introduced by Chancellor Otto von Bismark and financed by a state subsidy. New Zealand introduced pensions in 1898, while Austria-Hungary (late 19th century), Norway (1909), Sweden (1910), Italy, UK, and Russia (1911), introduced national health insurance. The USA followed later, with the Social Security Act of 1935. The developments came in response to political and social pressures, including the extension of voting rights. They provided minimum standards, but not to all groups in society. It was not until the early 1940s, with the UK taking the lead, that a comprehensive welfare state, covering all its elements and available to all, was established.