Welfare state
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"When we have a children, we put it in daycare; when we feel bad we take antidepressants, when our parents age, we put them in an retirement home; when we need companionship, we get a dog or a cat; when we're fed up, we apply for euthanasia."--A.-W. R. Ethoric |
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A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for citizens unable to avail themselves of the minimal provisions for a good life.
There is substantial variability in the form and trajectory of the welfare state across countries and regions. All welfare states entail some degree of private–public partnerships wherein the administration and delivery of at least some welfare programs occur through private entities. Welfare state services are also provided at varying territorial levels of government.
Early features of the welfare state, such as public pensions and social insurance, developed from the 1880s onwards in industrializing Western countries. World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II have been characterized as important events that ushered in the expansion of the welfare state. The fullest forms of the welfare state were developed after World War II.
Criticizers of welfare state point out that the actual mental 'welfare', happiness, might not relate to that of material one (usually the usage of antidepressants is high in 'welfare states).
Criticism
The modern welfare state has been criticized on economic and moral grounds from all ends of the political spectrum. Classical liberals, libertarians, and conservatives often argue that the provision of tax-funded services or transfer payments reduces the incentive for workers to seek employment, thereby reducing the need to work, reducing the rewards of work, and exacerbating poverty. On the other hand, socialists typically criticize the welfare state as championed by liberals and social democrats as an attempt to legitimize and strengthen the capitalist economic system, which conflicts with the socialist goal of replacing capitalism with a socialist economic system.
- See also
- Disability fraud
- Moral hazard
- Pensions crisis
- Welfare capitalism
- Welfare culture
- Welfare fraud
- Welfare queen
- Welfare's effect on poverty
See also
- Constitutional economics
- Corporate welfare
- Economic security
- Flexicurity
- Free rider problem
- Happiness economics
- Hidden welfare state
- Involuntary unemployment
- Guaranteed minimum income
- Nanny state
- Social policy
- Social protection
- Social stratification
- State Socialism (Germany)
- Welfare capitalism
- Welfare economics
- Welfare trap
- Welfare state in the United Kingdom
- Models
- Transfer of wealth
- Housing
