country which cares for the basic needs of its citizens (i.e. health, housing, education)
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Welfare state Definition from Language, Idioms & Slang Dictionaries & Glossaries
welfare state
welfare work n : an organized activity to improve the condition of disadvantaged people in society [syn: social service]
Noun
1. a government that undertakes responsibility for the welfare of its citizens through programs in public health and public housing and pensions and unemployment compensation etc.
(hypernym) state
Welfare state Definition from Social Science Dictionaries & Glossaries
A government system which provides a range of human services for its citizens.
A state whose government devotes a very large proportion of its activities and expenditures to the direct provision of personal benefits to be consumed by qualifying individuals or families (as contrasted with such more traditional and less individually divisible government activities as national defense, law enforcement, controlling the money supply , economic regulation, maintaining transportation and communications nets, administering the public lands, etc.). Welfare benefits to individuals may be in the form either of bureaucratically supplied professional services of government employees or in the form of government-issued stipends or allowances or subsidies (transfer payments ) to help qualifying households pay for general subsistence or for specific categories of state-favored expenses (merit goods ). Examples of such social welfare programs would include old age and disability pensions, unemployment benefits, aid to families with dependent children, income supplements for the poor, public housing and housing vouchers, health care provided in state hospitals or clinics and reimbursement for the costs of privately-provided health care, government-funded drug abuse rehabilitation programs, food stamps, public education and child care, etc. Advocacy of extensive "welfare state" programs was at first associated mainly with socialist movements, but in most Western industrial societies today many welfare state programs are endorsed as well by non-socialist parties that nevertheless still continue to reject the socialists' traditional demands for much more extensive state ownership , state planning, and state administration of industry and commerce.
[See also: socialism , ideology , entitlement program , subsidy , merit good , transfer payment , state , bureaucracy ]
[See also: socialism , ideology , entitlement program , subsidy , merit good , transfer payment , state , bureaucracy ]
Welfare state Definition from Encyclopedia Dictionaries & Glossaries
- This article refers specifically to the Welfare state of the United Kingdom. For the general concept, please see Welfare state.
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A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of 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 unable to avail themselves of the minimal provisions for a good life. The general term may cover a variety of forms of economic and social organization."
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Welfare state Definition from Society & Culture Dictionaries & Glossaries
a system whereby the state undertakes ostensibly to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial need.
