Welfare State and the European Nations

“The phrase ‘welfare state’ was first used in the late 1930s, to distinguish between the policies of the democracies and the war state of European dictators” (Spicker, 2003). From the late nineteenth century, features of a welfare state began emerge in parts of Western Europe. The first European country to put in place a welfare state was Germany in 1883. The then Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck introduced a mandatory national accident and sickness insurance law. The insurance was financed by state subsidy (Spicker).

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