welfare state

Concept of government in which the state plays a key role in protecting and promoting the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those who lack the minimal provisions for a good life. The term may be applied to a variety of forms of economic and social organization. A basic feature of the welfare state is social insurance, intended to provide benefits during periods of greatest need (e.g., old age, illness, unemployment). The welfare state also usually includes public provision of education, health services, and housing. Such provisions are less extensive in the U.S. than in many European countries, where comprehensive health coverage and state-subsidized university-level education have been common. In countries with centrally planned economies, the welfare state also covers employment and administration of consumer prices. Most nations have instituted at least some of the measures associated with the welfare state; Britain adopted comprehensive social insurance in 1948, and in the U.S., social-legislation programs such as the New Deal and the Fair Deal were based on welfare-state principles. Scandinavian countries provide state aid for the individual in almost all phases of life.

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Branch of economics established in the 20th century that seeks to evaluate economic policies in terms of their effects on the community's well-being. Early theorists defined welfare as the sum of the satisfactions accruing to an individual through an economic system. Believing it was possible to compare the well-being of two or more individuals, they argued that a poor person would derive more satisfaction from an increase in income than would a rich person. Later writers argued that making such comparisons with any precision was impossible. A new and more limited criterion was later developed: one economic situation was deemed superior to another if at least one person had been made better off without anyone else being made worse off. Seealso consumer's surplus; Vilfredo Pareto.

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Any of a variety of governmental programs that provide assistance to those in need. Programs include pensions, disability and unemployment insurance, family allowances, survivor benefits, and national health insurance. The earliest modern welfare laws were enacted in Germany in the 1880s (see social insurance), and by the 1920s and '30s most Western countries had adopted similar programs. Most industrialized countries require firms to insure workers for disability (see workers' compensation) so that they have income if they are injured, whether temporarily or permanently. For disability from illness unrelated to occupational injury, most industrial states pay a short-term benefit followed by a long-term pension. Many countries pay a family allowance to reduce the poverty of large families or to increase the birth rate. Survivor benefits, provided for widows below pension age who are left with a dependent child, vary considerably among nations and generally cease if the woman remarries. Among the world's wealthy countries, only the U.S. fails to provide national health insurance other than for the aged and the poor (see Medicare and Medicaid).

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Welfare may refer to:

• Well-being, quality of lifestyle
• Animal welfare, the quality of life of animals, and concerns thereabout
• Welfare, a film directed by Frederick Wiseman

In economics:

• Social welfare provision, government programs that seek to provide a minimum level of income, service or other support for disadvantaged peoples
• Welfare (financial aid), financial assistance paid by taxpayers to people who are unable to support themselves, cf. Workfare, an alternative model requiring recipients to participate in work-rehabilitation programs,
• Corporate welfare, a pejorative describing a government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment on corporations
• Welfare state, in which the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens beyond a minimum level
• Welfare economics, determines allocative efficiency and the income distribution within an economy; see also, Social welfare function
• Social security, social welfare service concerned with social protection

See also

• Administration of federal assistance in the United States
• Affordable housing
• Canada Pension Plan
• Corporate welfare
• Disability pension
• Folkhemmet
• Government spending
• Guaranteed minimum income
• Income Support
• National Health Service
• Pauper's oath
• Social insurance
• Social safety net
• Social security
• Social work, a profession intrinsically involved in the provision of welfare
• Subsidized housing
• Welfare state