A Social Welfare State: A Concept, Essence and Types

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the examination of the concept and essence of a social welfare state. The author studies the history of the formation of the concept of a social welfare state, correlates it with the state of prosperity, analyzes various approaches to the definition of the welfare state, classifies the models of the welfare state. The author criticizes the opinion that distinguishes between a paternalistic state and a welfare state and comes to the conclusion that a paternalistic state is an extreme form of a welfare state when the latter guarantees a high level of social safeguards. The paper concludes that the welfare state is directly related to such categories as social equality, social security, solidarity of society, social tension, social policy, as well as a number of other categories. At the same time, social justice is the central category, since it is the category that represents the goal for which the state conducts its social policy.