Development of Welfare State Theory: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

The already existing challenges of the welfare state, the new social risks and aging population are coupled with the new phenomena of financial crisis, Euro-crisis, debt crisis and the lack of economic growth that has followed in recent years since leads to converging and diverging welfare outcomes as well. Welfare state retrenchment dominates politics today, strict austerity policies have been widely adopted in Europe since 2008. For a better understanding of the current pressures on the welfare states the paper reviews the historical development and the theoretical arguments against and in favour of the concept.