Comparing Welfare Provision in Germany and England Essay

On the historical context, when we talk about the German Healthcare system we have to go back to the medieval times where it has its origin. Major reforms and laws were put in place during the 1880’s as a result of the industrialization of the German state. For example, during the “Industrialization and introduction of mandatory health insurance on the national level in 1883, during the Empire Weimar Republic 1883-1933, the National-Socialist period 1933-1945, the post war

The idea of the welfare state can mean something different in each and every country. There is an ideal model of the welfare state which is where society accepts the responsibility for things such as the ground work and the provision of wide ranging and

The social welfare system in the United States can be a controversial topic especially now with the new presidential elect. For this paper I was assigned to look into two different peoples perceptions and attitudes on the social welfare system. I looked into how they perceived the system and whom they believed benefits from this system. Throughout this paper the identities of the two people I interviewed will not be revealed. I will simply refer to them in pronouns. My goal during this interview was not to educate my two interviewees so some of the information contained in this paper may not be accurate. Throughout this paper the two interviewees opinions will be stated and their opinions will then be compared and discussed. Although the whole population of the United States is experiencing the same welfare system each individual perceives and has different beliefs about the system.

In America today, just over ten million people are on unemployment insurance, one hundred and ten million people are on welfare, and the total government spending annually is around one hundred and thirty billion dollars (Welfare Statistics). The welfare state is a political system based on the proposition that the government has the individual responsibility to ensure that the minimum standard of living is met for all citizens. Specifically, in the matters of health care, public education, employment, and social security, the welfare state assumes all responsibility. According to John Rawls, “In a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests. The only thing that permits us to acquiesce in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one; analogously, an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice“(Rawls). In the 1840s, Otto Von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of Germany, was the father of the modern welfare state. He built the program to win over the support of the working middle class in Germany and ultimately reduce the outflow of immigrants to the U.S., where welfare did not exist (Welfare State). In the United States, not all companies provided workers with benefits, thus the workers appealed to the government, giving rise to the first form of welfare capitalism.

In conclusion the Welfare State was created on the principle that the state accepted a responsibility to protect and promote the welfare of all citizens. It must be noted that the system was designed to provide a national minimum, not reduce inequalities. I have looked in detail at all aspects to combat the “five giants “and the popular support when the Beveridge report was introduced. I have also looked at flaws in the system, however the cornerstone of the Beveridgian welfare system, was left almost untouched until the 1980’s.

The Liberal government introduced a series of reforms aimed at moving away from the Laissez-faire ideology and toward a more self help scheme aiming to move people away from poverty and to make Britain a better country both in health and prosperity; Churchill said “If we see a drowning man we do not drag him to the shore, instead we provide help to allow him to swim ashore”. To do this the Liberals aimed at giving aid to the young, the old, the sick, the unemployed and the workers; these groups will be discussed throughout the essay. These reforms were later regarded as the foundations for the welfare state.

The analytical findings of Brady, D.( 2009, p.81) stated that “As countries devote a larger share of their economy to welfare, poverty declines steeply.” This happened to Scandinavia, Finland, and Sweden, and European continental countries like Netherlands and Belgium. USA was identified to have high poverty and low welfare expenses. He also made clear that poverty is not necessarily increased by higher welfare generosity.(p.84) and further says that it benefits all rather than just “the elderly or men” (p.87). The 5 features of welfare state were historically proven to reduce poverty through greater generosity with (1) social welfare expenditures, (2) expenditures for public health, (3) social security, (4) government expenditures, and (5) “decommodification” (p.91). Brady, D. (p.92) also contends that public employment is less effective than welfare state generosity as a

The subsidiary model is commonly found in modern day Germany, but that hasn’t always been the case. Up until 1994, the long-term care of senior citizens was the responsibility of the family. For those who could not handle the financial burden, social services benefits were available to subsidize the cost (Schulz, 2010). Unfortunately this led to an increase in social assistance expenditures, and for this reason a mandatory and universal system of social

The Bismarck Model: was named after the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismark, he invented the welfare state as part of the unification of Germany in the 19th century. This system is relatively similar to the American Healthcare. It’s an insurance system that insurers also call it “sickness funds,” financed by employers and employees through payroll deduction. The Bismark-type health insurance plans have to cover everybody, and they don’t make a profit. Doctors and hospitals tend to be private in Bismarck countries. Retrieved from http://www.cmcc.ca/international

Poverty is something that is so often looked at in many different ways depending on the society. Stefan Svallfors conducted research in 2004 that compared class, attitudes and the welfare state in four different countries. Svallfors compared Sweden, Britain, Germany, and the United States’ citizens attitudes towards what the government’s responsibility is when it come to helping individuals in need. The author is trying to figure out what factors cause the different attitudes from different countries. His theory is that as welfare policies differ between countries, it will differ between class and attitude. He also theorizes that attitudes towards welfare policies could change over time and as time progresses, the attitude will progress in a different direction among the populations. The data that is analyzed in this paper comes from the 1996 survey on “The Role of Government” conducted within the International Social Survey Programme. This research found that responses varied between nations and we must consider the living conditions in each country. Sweden was the

This desire for the welfare state was rooted in many causes. To fully understand these cause we have to start out not at the 1941 beginnings of the large scale welfare state but to 1598.

The aim of this essay is to discuss and compare the British Welfare system with Germany and Sweden’s welfare systems. A welfare system is the structure of welfare provisions and services that provide a specific social need, but it is not only provided or organised solely by the government (Blakemore, 2001). It is a view that is rooted in individual exchanges between five organisations (State/Government, Market/Private Sector, Family/Kin networks, Local Communities and Civil Society). It reflects the history and cultures of different countries around the world (Haralambos, 2012). It is these providers that assume principal

This essay will consider whether the welfare state has eliminated poverty. It will examine what poverty is and how the definition varies from societies. The essay will look at the aims of the welfare state from conception and how it has changed to present times. The welfare state being analysed is the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It will discuss the nature of the social democratic welfare state and liberal criticisms of the problems this type of state brings. The recent changes to the welfare state will be reviewed and what the consequences of the changes may be. It will then look at recent statistics to determine whether the welfare state has eradicated poverty.

Compare and contrast the key elements of the Danish welfare model, with that of the Central European welfare model.

The liberal welfare state provides modest social insurance plans, and universal transfers to low income, working-class dependents. “It is a model in which implicitly or explicitly, the progress of social reform has been severely