welfare state

(noun)

A social system in which the state takes overall responsibility for the welfare of its citizens, providing health care, education, unemployment compensation and social security.

Related Terms

Examples of welfare state in the following topics:

  • History of the Welfare State

    • Marshall identified the welfare state as a distinctive combination of democracy, welfare and capitalism.
    • Roosevelt's New Deal welfare state policies of the 1930s.
    • The welfare system in the United States began in the 1930s, during the Great Depression.
    • In the 1970s, California was the U.S. state with the most generous welfare system.
    • Marshall identified the welfare state as a distinctive combination of democracy, welfare and capitalism.

  • Foundations of the Welfare State

    • The welfare system in the United States was created on the grounds that the market cannot provide goods and services universally.
    • The welfare state involves a transfer of funds from the state, to the services provided – examples include healthcare, education and housing – as well as directly to individuals.
    • The welfare state is funded through redistributionist taxation and is often referred to as a type of "mixed economy."
    • Examples of the Liberal welfare state include Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the United States.
    • Compare and contrast the social-democratic welfare state, the Christian-democratic welfare state and the liberal welfare state

  • Welfare State Capitalism

    • Welfare capitalism refers to a welfare state in a capitalist economic system or to businesses providing welfare-like services to employees.
    • Welfare capitalism refers either to the combination of a capitalist economic system with a welfare state or, in the American context, to the practice of private businesses providing welfare-like services to employees.
    • As workers became frustrated with meager or nonexistent benefits, they appealed to government for help, giving rise to the first form of welfare capitalism: welfare provisions provided by the state within the context of a capitalist economy.
    • In the United States, workers formed labor unions to gain greater collective bargaining power.
    • In the United States, the first two decades of the twentieth century—the Progressive Era—saw an increase in the number of protections the government was able to extend to workers.

  • Toward a Welfare State

    • Maternalist reforms were those that provided assistance for mothers and children, expanding the American welfare state.
    • Colonial legislatures and later State governments adopted legislation patterned after the English "poor" laws.
    • By 1929, workers' compensation laws were in effect in all but four States.
    • All these social programs were far from universal and varied considerably from one state to another.
    • One unique trend in the history of welfare in the U.S. were Maternalist Reforms.

  • A Halfway Revolution

    • As mentioned, while it is often criticized that the New Deal did not go far enough as far as social reform, the United States has a number of social welfare programs that trace their legacy to the New Deal era.
    • This compared to France and Sweden with welfare spending ranges from 30% to 35% of GDP.
    • The American welfare state was designed to address market shortcomings and do what private enterprises cannot or will not do themselves.
    • Unlike welfare states built on social democracy foundations, the United State's welfare state was not designed to promote a redistribution of political power from capital to labor; nor was it designed to mediate class struggle.
    • The welfare state, whether through charitable redistribution or regulation that favors smaller players, is motivated by reciprocal altruism.

  • Promoting the General Welfare

    • Article IV of the Constitution of Massachusetts provides authority for the state to make laws "as they shall judge to be for the good and welfare of this commonwealth. " The actual phrase "general welfare" appears only in Article CXVI, which permits the imposition of capital punishment for "the purpose of protecting the general welfare of the citizens. "
    • Such clauses are generally interpreted as granting the state broad power to legislate or regulate for the general welfare, remaining independent of other powers specified in the governing document.
    • The United States Constitution contains two references to "the General Welfare," one occurring in the Preamble and the other in the Taxing and Spending clause .
    • The Preamble of the United States Constitution states that the Union was established "to promote the general Welfare. " The Taxing and Spending Clause is the clause that gives the federal government of the United States its power of taxation.
    • The state of Alabama has had six constitutions.

  • Welfare Reform

    • Social programs in the United States are welfare subsidies designed to aid the needs of the U.S. population.
    • This gave states no incentive to direct welfare funds to the neediest recipients or to encourage individuals to go off welfare benefits (the state lost federal money when someone left the system).
    • In 1996, under the Bill Clinton administration, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which gave more control of the welfare system to the states though there are basic requirements the states need to meet with regards to welfare services .
    • After reforms, which President Clinton said would "end welfare as we know it," amounts from the federal government were given out in a flat rate per state based on population.
    • Each state must meet certain criteria to ensure recipients are being encouraged to work themselves out of welfare.

  • Promoting Public Welfare and Income Redistribution

    • Social welfare programs seek to provide basic social protections for all Americans.
    • The United States has a long political history of seeking to implement policy to promote public welfare.
    • One of the most well-known initiatives to improve public welfare in times of need was President Franklin D.
    • Current American politicians also attempt to ensure that programs exist to promote public welfare.
    • Social Security exists to this day as a federal program to promote public welfare.

  • Public Assistance

    • Public assistance, also referred to colloquially as welfare, is the provision of a minimal level of social support for all citizens.
    • In the United States, the funds for public assistance are given at a flat rate to each state based on population.
    • Each state has to meet certain criteria to ensure that individuals receiving public assistance are being encouraged to work themselves out of welfare.
    • Subsidy: government funded programs that provide assistance to citizens on federal, state, local, and private levels.
    • Vouchers: are bonds given out by the government or other welfare organizations.

  • Evaluating GDP as a Measure of the Economy

    • Simon Kuznets, the economist who developed the first comprehensive set of measures of national income, stated in his first report to the US Congress in 1934, in a section titled "Uses and Abuses of National Income Measurements":
    • "Economic welfare cannot be adequately measured unless the personal distribution of income is known.
    • The welfare of a nation can, therefore, scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income. "
    • Following on his caution with respect to economic extrapolations from GDP, in 1962, Kuznets stated: "Distinctions must be kept in mind between quantity and quality of growth, between costs and returns, and between the short and long run.
    • However, a qualitative assessment would likely value the latter country compared to the former on a welfare or quality of life basis .