El estadio del contexto familiar y el desarrollo psicológico durante la adolescencia.

In the course of justifying the historical development of the welfare state, scholars encountered some challenges coming up with an acceptable definition of the concept of the welfare state.

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Depending on the historical antecedents of each state, every state has its peculiar national social security system, emerging from its unique social structure that drives its exclusive needs.

Customarily, every welfare state defines the policies that its economy, socioeconomic and cultural situations require and consequently back these up with the force of legislative guidelines.

To do an explanatory justice to the development process of a welfare state, there may be a need to put them into three distinct epochs. The first epoch was from 1870 to 1913. The first period was between 1870 and 1913, that is to say, from when the industrial revolution began in the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century. The second epoch was from 1918 to 1939.

The next period was the time between World War I in 1918 and World War II in 1939. The third epoch was from 1950 to 1973. The third period was between 1950 and 1973, an era commonly described as the ―Golden Age of Welfare States.‖

The rhythm of the welfare state altered with the economic disasters which emerged after 1973.

This period came to be recognised as ―Welfare State Crisis‖ up to the present time. The welfare state took its root in the early seventeenth century(1601) when Poor Laws got the force of enforcement in the UK. This period was characterised by the conscription of most men into the army to fight at wars. On their return, they were predisposed to different kinds of risks as there were no structured social security benefits to fall back on. Therefore, the 1601 Poor Law was, in history, the first legislative initiative to provide social security for the elders, patients, and injured people in the society. To the extent that the 1601 legislative regulation was not all-inclusive because it essentially excluded the rest of the society that needed protection, it was inadequate.In 1834, another legislative regulation was made owing tohorrible economic and social pressures that accompanied the developments which the then society experienced. The social policy began to encounter the effects of stigmatization. In the periods that followed, the free market economy outcomes of Adam Smith started to influence the state policies and legislative guidelines in the UK and other countries. To the extent that all the countries spent all their incomes to prosecute World War 1, it can be concluded that the idea of the welfare state effectively began after World War II.

It became known after John Maynard Keynes‘ approach was not adequate for creating job opportunities and revamping public economy in the aftermath of World War I. the thought that the provision of employment opportunities and conducive working conditions could prevent a second war. Using the instrumentality of the 1942 Social Security report (Social Insurance and

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Allied Services), Lord William Beveridge intendedto create a health system that would provide a minimum income and decrease the rates of employment. After the war, the opinions of Beveridge were assessed together with Keynes‘ approach to evolving national welfare for the UK (Rodgers, 2014). Distrust in liberalism compelled countries to embrace new expeditions.

Between 1870 and 1913, states faced novel social dangers. These risks included the increase in the aging population, pension expenditures, work-related diseases, and accidents.

Bismarck made some efforts in the 1880sto deliver social security. His reform struggles attempted to protect the people through social security provisions against the risks of the industrial revolution, low income, and population movements. The long hours of workand distasteful working conditions intensified poverty and galvanised socialist movements.

Thesedevelopments triggered the coming into force of regulations that coverdisease insurance in 1883, work accident insurance in 1884, and old-age and disability insurance in 1889. The reform movement of Bismarck was intended to establishan inclusive system that covers the state, enlisted the support of employers and employees. Consistent with the struggle, three dimensions came to characterise the system: employer‘s responsibilities, individual investments, and private insurance. The system does notreject the intervention by the state. As a result, it can be argued that the reform of Bismarck marked the significant development of many legislative regulations that spurred economic and political structures as well as social policies to address the diseases and injuries which industrialization induced in other countries.

In Western European Countries up to 1913, they were nonesuch regulations and rules enforced anywhere. As a result of industrialization, the alterations in social demographic structure, and growing pressures in the nineteenth-century European states, the consciousness of the welfare state gained momentum. The public sector and economy had a rapid development in China, Brazil, and Russia. Between 1950 and 1973, the golden age of welfare state, the Keynesian approach was adopted by state intervention to steadily solve the free market economy induced problems.Nonetheless, Keynesian policies led states to go into disaster after the 1970s. Great tax rates, growing public expenses, and states having to intervene in markets were noted as the causesof the crises. In this epoch, the extent of social expenditures on public expenditures was slowlyrising; motherhood, old-age, injury, and death insurances have been adopted in many countries. Moreover, unemployment insurance and family assistance were also controlled in more advanced countries (Özdemir, 2007).

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The welfare state has not stopped transforming since 1975. The state intervention which intensified with the 1929 economic disaster was traded with another system wherein the state concentrated on the oil crisis between 1973 and 1979. In this period, states became convinced about the need to play a less interventionist role in economic and social policies. The pressure of social expenditures induced budget deficit increased in this period when Western European countries experienced chronic unemployment, increased inflation rate, and decreased economic growth. The emergence of a neoliberal approach in this period was adopted as a new form of liberalism, anoutcome of a solution-seeking initiative against Keynesian policies (Şenkal, 2005).Following the fierce competition that resulted from the economic crises, a new erabegan in the late 1970s, when the Keynesian welfare state experienced a crisis.

With globalization, the welfare state that was characterised by stable economic growth, acceptable working conditions and price offers ended and ushered in a new period in which nation-states lost a significant amount of their authority began. These developments influenced social policies and caused the adoption of a neoliberal approach for lessening social expenditures. States adopted restructuring as new reforms to re-start economic growth.

Therefore, many countries have resorted toguidelines to lessen social expenditures. However, in various countries, public expenditures have not reduced, in its place, they have amplified. The underlying reasons for the condition transcend mere economic factors.They included the change of demographic structure such asthe aging population and the changing family structure.

Since economic policies have been shown to havemutual interactions with social policies, the changes in economic policies are expected to affect social policies, as one is not independent of the other. Conversely, the economic condition of the welfare state is connectedto individual behavioursand the social security system to cohere with labour market and social welfare. The contradiction between labour market and state intervention remainsunsolved (Greve, 2014). The development of the welfare state remainsdynamic as the state still plays a significant role in social policies‘ determination. Therefore, in addition to economic indicators, the changes occurring in demographic and social structure help to determine the policies of the welfare state.

Thewelfare state redistributes income and plays an interventionist and regulatory function. Also, it strives to eradicatepessimism in working life. It defines the minimum wage, embarks on social security and welfare services, and interferesthrough taxes and other expenditures to eradicatediscriminations in income distribution (Clarke, Hughes, Lewis, & Money,1995). The

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welfare state is conveyed as the developed and extension of the classic defensive state (Rosanvallon, Refah, & Çev, 2004). The welfare state, whose last attained stage has been the modern state, is no longer a ―spectator state,‖ but it is a role ―player state‖ (Serter, 1994).

None of the definitions of the welfare state excludes the mind-setof the protection of the individuals who are socially and economically vulnerable. There is a consensus that it is only through social policies that protection can be achieved. Therefore, the intervention of the welfare state for the sake of eradicating the undesirable conditions, which the welfare state exists to achieve as one of the goals of its social policies, is proper and necessary. Thy rhythm and scope of welfare state differ. The variationdepends on each country‘s social, cultural, economic, and demographic conditions.Essentially, these changes centre on the safeguarding the protection of children, the disabled, the elders, families, and women. They extend also to creating jobs, providing vocational training, and education, struggling against low income and poverty, and improving the working conditions. Considering the norms of the welfare state, numerouspeculiarities have been made based on the services and expenditures to safeguard social welfare. The most important study on this issue by Gosta Esping-Andersen classifies welfare state systems as follows:

• Liberal welfare model which is practiced by the USA and UK

• Conservative and Continental Europe model which is practiced by Germany, France, and Belgium

• Social Democratic Scandinavian Model which is practiced by Sweden and Denmark (Esping-Anderson, 1990; Anderson, 1999).

The welfare state,a new form of the liberal state, is one of the measures intended to mitigate the problems of inequality and pessimism that characterise post-industrial revolution. The freedom of operation enjoyed by capital and market in the absence of state interference threatenedsocial interests under the liberal approach. Also, the socialist approach that sought to champion the cause of the working class was inadequate to meet social needs. The welfare state came as a system to solve the problems of liberal and socialist systems.

Concerning the welfare state, the following conclusions could be reached about this period until the commencement of the process of globalization and neoliberalism (Özdemir, 2004).

• An institutional approach replaced theevolution of the residual approach.

• Socialwelfare transformed into a human right accruing to every citizen.

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• While the welfare was initially designed to care for the poor only, it later blossomed into a global resource that covers the needs of the whole society.

• It transformed from a restricted welfare budget to huge welfare expenditures.

• The belief that problems such as poverty and joblessnessdid not arise from individual errors but due to the insufficiency of the state and its institutions.

• Taking responsibility for the provision of social welfare has ceased to bea function of volunteer individuals and institutions to become the burden of public institutions.

After the 1970s, theprevailing economic crises caused problems the undermined the Keynesian welfare state. As a result of rising unemployment, declining economic growth and the increase in retirement age, and health expenditure due to aging of the population led to a budget deficit as a critical problem. The major subsisting criticism of the welfare state is that its social policy practices caused all the adverse, socioeconomic and political challenges. The enduring consideration of demographic variations and the influence of globalization on the welfare state have created new opportunities for discussion of the future development of the welfare state (Greve, 2014). However, the following are a few of the criticisms of the welfare state:

• There is a consistent rise in poverty and unemployment rates, and the failure of social welfare policies.

• The impact of welfare intervention results in adverseoutcomes for family structure as it raises divorce rates and worsens moral values

• Its impact on the taxes on income and capital has been prohibitive

• Social expenditures have risen (Özdemir, 2004; Glazer, 1990).

In response to the criticisms of the welfare states, they have started to develop new policies that will help them restructure their social policies.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE (SAE) 2

What do you understand by social welfare? Explain the steps towards state welfare and state the trajectory of its history in Nigeria.