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.
The contemporary capitalist welfare state has been described as a type of mixed economy in the sense of state interventionism, as opposed to a mixture of planning and markets, since economic planning was not a key feature or component of the welfare state. Early features therein, 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.
Etymology The term welfare is much older than the term welfare state. In enlightened absolutism, the ruler had an unlimited position of power, which he was to only utilize to the extent necessary for the "welfare" of his subjects. The content of the "welfare" or "good police", which limited the ruler's legitimate exercise of power, was defined by the authorities at their own discretion. This is also referred to as "welfare absolutism". The term welfare state is used in connection with princely absolutism, this is usually in conjunction with attributes such as absolutist, mercantilist or pre-modern.
The German term ("social state") has been used since 1870 to describe state support programs devised by German ("social politicians") and implemented as part of Otto von Bismarck's conservative reforms.
Today the term is used almost entirely for the "modern" welfare state, which emerged in the 19th century in the course of the socio-economic upheavals caused by industrialisation, the formation of nation states and democratization. While the corresponding English term welfare state is descriptively neutral, the term "" is often used in German as a fighting term with a pejorative connotation.
The literal English equivalent "social state" did not catch on in Anglophone countries. However, during the Second World War, Anglican Archbishop William Temple, author of the book Christianity and Social Order (1942), popularized the concept using the phrase "welfare state". Temple's use of "welfare state" has been connected to Benjamin Disraeli's 1845 novel Sybil: or the Two Nations (in other words, the rich and the poor), where he writes "power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the PEOPLE". At the time he wrote Sybil, Disraeli (later a prime minister) belonged to Young England, a conservative group of youthful Tories who disagreed with how the Whigs dealt with the conditions of the industrial poor. Members of Young England attempted to garner support among the privileged classes to assist the less fortunate and to recognize the dignity of labor that they imagined had characterized England during the Feudal Middle Ages.
History
Ancient
India Emperor Ashoka of India put forward his idea of a welfare state in the 3rd century BCE. He envisioned his dharma (religion or path) as not just a collection of high-sounding phrases. He consciously tried to adopt it as a matter of state policy; he declared that "all men are my children"The Edicts of King Asoka, Colostate. and "whatever exertion I make, I strive only to discharge debt that I owe to all living creatures." It was a completely new ideal of kingship. Ashoka renounced war and conquest by violence and forbade the killing of many animals. Since he wanted to conquer the world through love and faith, he sent many missions to propagate Dharma. Such missions were sent to places like Egypt, Greece, and Sri Lanka. The propagation of Dharma included many measures of people's welfare. Centers of the treatment of men and beasts founded inside and outside of the empire. Shady groves, wells, orchards and rest houses were laid out. Ashoka also prohibited useless sacrifices and certain forms of gatherings which led to waste, indiscipline and superstition. To implement these policies he recruited a new cadre of officers called Dharmamahamattas. Part of this group's duties was to see that people of various sects were treated fairly. They were especially asked to look after the welfare of prisoners.
However, the historical record of Ashoka's character is conflicted. Ashoka's own inscriptions state that he converted to Buddhism after waging a destructive war. However, the Sri Lankan tradition claims that he had already converted to Buddhism in the 4th year of his reign, although it does not mention the conquest of Kalinga. During this war, according to Ashoka's Major Rock Edict 13, with nearly 100,000 killed in the war and another 150,000 deported. Some sources (particularly Buddhist oral legends) suggest that his conversion was dramatic and that he dedicated the rest of his life to the pursuit of peace and the common good. However, these sources frequently contradict each other, and a few sources (like Ashokavadana, earliest versions ranging from 200 AD to 500 AD) describe Ashoka engaging in sectarian mass murder throughout his reign, and make no mention of the philanthropic efforts claimed by earlier legends. The interpretation of Ashoka's dharma after conversion is controversial, but in particular, the texts which describe him personally ordering the massacre of Buddhist heretics and Jains have been disputed by many scholars, since these are directly contradictory to his own edicts, and are legendary in nature.
According to one study, Ashoka developed “a very comprehensive system of social welfare which included women’s welfare, rehabilitation of prisoners, rural development, free medical care, regulation of prostitution and provision of public utilities like roads, rest houses for travellers, wells, etc.”Social Work and Social Welfare (Subsidized under the NBT), By Shankar Pathak, Publisher: Niruta Publications, 2012, P.48
China The Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang Emperor Wen (203 – 157 BCE) of Han Dynasty instituted a variety of measures with resemblances to modern welfare policies. These included pensions, in the form of food and wine, to all over 80 years of age, as well as monetary support, in the form of loans or tax breaks, to widows, orphans, and elderly without children to support them.
In 1386, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict that stipulated that (as noted by one study) “the poor people aged above 80 will be granted with 30kg of rice, 2.5mg of meat and 1.8kg of wine each month; those aged above 90 will receive additional 33 m of silk and 0.6kg of cotton wool.”Social Welfare in Transitional China By Keqing Han, Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore, 2019, P.201-202
Emperor Wen was known for a concern over wasteful spending of tax-payer money. Unlike other Han emperors, he wore simple silk garments. In order to make the state serve the common people better, cruel criminal punishments were lessened and the state bureaucracy was made more meritocratic. This led to officials being selected by examinations for the first time in Chinese history.
Various forms of social welfare also existed in other periodsANCIENT ACCOUNTS OF ANCIENT INDIA AND CHINA BY TWO MOHAMMEDAN TRAVELLERS, Who went to those Parts in the 9th Century, Translated from the ARABIC, By the late Learned EUSEBIUS RENAUDOT, 1733, P.29 such as the Zhou periodA Collection of Modern Korean Buddhist Discourses By Choe Namseon and others, Publisher: Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism and the Song dynasty.Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China The Politics of Culture and the Culture of Politics, Editors: Maggie Bickford, Patricia Buckley Ebrey Publisher: Brill, 2006, P.296-301
Inca Empire A social welfare system existed under the Incas consisting of a community fund of goods to provide for orphans, the sick, the elderly, and the poor.Social Policies and Emotions A Look from the Global South By Angélica De Sena, Adrian Scribano, Publisher: Springer International Publishing, P.17 As noted by Robert Marett (diplomat), part of the economic policy of the Inca Empire was that “nobody in the land should go in want for essential food and clothing and a roof over his head.” Marett, however, has argued that the welfare system operated by the Inca Empire was not a lavish one, arguing thatPERU By SIR ROBERT MARETT K.C.M.G., O.B.E., LONDON ERNEST BENN LIMITED, 1969, P.45 “Freedom from want for the mass of the people meant two extremely frugal meals a day; clothes which could not be renewed until they were in tatters; no shoes; a one-room house without windows; a field and two llamas for each head of family; a life of toil only relieved by an occasional fiesta, when the chicha would flow freely and for a moment the peasant could forget the hard world into which he had been born.”PERU By SIR ROBERT MARETT K.C.M.G., O.B.E., LONDON ERNEST BENN LIMITED, 1969, P.45-46
Adding to these points, Marett argued that the policy of the economic planners was not to make life better for the common people, with human beings (according to Marett) “considered by the Inca to be no more than cogs in a machine.”PERU By SIR ROBERT MARETT K.C.M.G., O.B.E., LONDON ERNEST BENN LIMITED, 1969, P.46 Nevertheless, Marett has noted how people during famines were helped from central stores and that those who were too sick or old to work “would be assured of a bare living.”PERU By SIR ROBERT MARETT K.C.M.G., O.B.E., LONDON ERNEST BENN LIMITED, 1969, P.47
Ancient Rome The Roman Republic intervened sporadically to distribute free or subsidized grain to its population, through the program known as cura annonae. The city of Rome grew rapidly during the Roman Republic and Empire, reaching a population approaching one million in the second century AD. The population of the city grew beyond the capacity of the nearby rural areas to meet the food needs of the city. p. 10.
Regular grain distribution began in 123 BC with a grain law proposed by Gaius Gracchus and approved by the Roman plebeian council (popular assembly). The numbers of those receiving free or subsidized grain expanded to a high of an estimated 320,000 people at one point. pp. 262–264.Cristofori, Alessandro, "Grain Distribution in Late Republican Rome", pp. 146–151, accessed 17 September 2018 In the 3rd century AD, the dole of grain was replaced by bread, probably during the reign of Septimius Severus (193–211 AD). Severus also began providing olive oil to residents of Rome, and later the emperor Aurelian (270–275) ordered the distribution of wine and pork. The doles of bread, olive oil, wine, and pork apparently continued until near the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.. The dole in the early Roman Empire is estimated to account for 15 to 33 percent of the total grain imported and consumed in Rome. p. 316.