European Foundations of the Welfare State [Paperback]

While social welfare programs, often inspired by international organizations, are spreading throughout the world, the more far-reaching notion of governmental responsibility for the basic well-being of all members of a political society is not, although it remains a feature of Europe and the former British Commonwealth. The welfare state in the European sense is not simply an administrative arrangement of various measures of social protection but a political project embedded in distinct cultural traditions. Offering the first accessible account in English of the historical development of the European idea of the welfare state, this book reviews the intellectual foundations which underpinned the road towards the European welfare state, formulates some basic concepts for its understanding, and highlights the differences in the underlying structural and philosophical conditions between continental Europe and the English-speaking world.

List of Figures

Foreword
Anthony Atkinson

Translators Preface
Acknowledgements

Introduction:A Sociological Perspective

PART I: INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1.Pioneers of Social Reformism: Sismondi, List, Mill
Chapter 2.German Origins of a Theory of Social Reform: Hegel, Stein and the Idea of Social Policy
Chapter 3.Christian Infl uences on Social Reform
Chapter 4.Welfare Internationalism before the Welfare State: The Emergence of Social Human Rights

PART II: THEORY OF SOCIAL POLICY

Chapter 5.Social Security: The Leading Idea and its Problems
Chapter 6.Social Policy Intervention: Elements of a Sociological Theory 146
Chapter 7.First-order and Second-order Social Policies

PART III: THEORY OF AND FOR THE WELFARE STATE

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