The term welfare state refers to the role that states have played in providing welfare services and benefits for their citizens primarily in income maintenance and health care but also in housing, education and social work. From the end of the...

A welfare state is a socio-economic system in which the state takes responsibility for a large part of the economic and social welfare of its population. The mechanisms used to achieve this include progressive taxation, unemployment or sickness...

Welfare state is a term that came into general use during the Second World War coalition government in Britain, largely as a result of the influential Beveridge Report of 1942. This set up a plan for a comprehensive set of services, financed largely...

A nation that provides for basic needs by using taxation to finance benefits for low-income groups and to deliver free personal services, especially health care. Germany provides one of the earliest examples of a welfare state; Sweden, one of the most...

The Welfare State of the United Kingdom was prefigured in the William Beveridge Report in 1942, which identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease. A series of changes was put in place to deal with these Evils...

Speaker of the House New Gingrich backed down from his earlier proposal to bar legal immigrants from collecting welfare. Block grants to states and requirements of welfare recipients are also discussed. THE Republican drive toward welfare reform has hit some snags. First came...

One great project of the late 20th century was the construction of vast welfare states in wealthy nations to protect people against the insecurities of the business cycle and the injustices of unfettered capitalism. One great question of the early 21st century is whether...

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Saturday that election of a Democrat to the White House in 2008 would open the way for a welfare state where bigger government, higher taxes and defense cutbacks sap the country's economic and military strength."Our country is at a...

The welfare state is bigger than ever despite a decade of policies designed to wean poor people from public aid.The number of families receiving cash benefits from welfare has plummeted since the government imposed time limits on the payments a decade ago. But other programs...