ABSTRACT
The origins of the Western welfare state date back to the last quarter of the nineteenth century and are closely associated with the major social, economic and political transformations of the time (Castles et al. 2010). Great societal transformations involving industrialization, the rise of capitalism, urbanization and population growth paved the way for a new role of the state regarding its responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. Traditional forms of welfare provision offered by families, guilds, voluntary organizations and charities, churches and local communities came to be seen by many people in authoritative positions as insufficient welfare providers. The last two decades of the nineteenth century mark the ‘take-off of the modern welfare state’ (Flora and Alber 1981), and inaugurated the emergence and growth of social-insurance-like policies. The great societal transformations were conducive to new thinking about the social role of the state: Should the state assume a more active social role? And if so, then how? On entering the twentieth century, social policy and welfare emerged to become a crucial issue on the political agenda, first and foremost in Western countries, as to whether democratic or authoritarian, and significant variations among Western nations could already be observed from the beginning. The foundations for a divide between a social insurance model premised on an application of relatively pure insurance principles (continental Europe) and a social citizenship model premised on universal tax-based provision (Scandinavia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand), although not necessarily intentionally, was established in this early period (Kuhnle and Sander 2010).
