Welfare state

The welfare state is a model in which government takes responsibility for the economic security and well-being of its citizens through programs such as retirement pensions, unemployment insurance, health coverage, disability benefits and assistance for low-income families.

Its origins are usually traced to Otto von Bismarck's social insurance in Germany in the 1880s, Britain's Beveridge Report and the 1948 National Health Service, and, in the U.S., to the New Deal's Social Security Act of 1935 and the Great Society programs of the 1960s, including Medicare and Medicaid. Countries differ widely in their size and design, and the United States combines social insurance with means-tested programs and tax benefits.

Supporters argue that it reduces poverty and insecurity, supports workers and promotes opportunity. Conservatives and libertarians raise concerns about cost and the effect on incentives, work and family structure, and argue that private charity and local institutions can do more good, as in the civil society tradition; the 1996 welfare reform, which added work requirements, is often cited as a bipartisan example of reform. Debates cover entitlement growth, means testing and whether benefits discourage work.