The welfare state at the end of the long boom, 1965-1980: Themes and issues

Forged during the Second World War and the post-war era, the modern Western welfare state was created as a bulwark against the penury associated with the twin repercussions of the First World War and later the Great Depression of the 1930s and the insecurities brought about by the second global war. The state accepted an enlarged commitment to the social and economic well-being of its citizens, propelled by a concern to ensure social stability as much as a commitment to the welfare of individuals. Most Western economies developed a mix of public and private provision of welfare, building on existing initiatives and reaching a new level of scale and maturity in the period 1945 to 1975. In Britain, William Beveridge laid down what his biographer, Jose Harris, has described as a key foundation document for social welfare provision in any modern mixed economy, not just in the United Kingdom but also for much of the developed world through his 1942 Social Insurance and Allied Services report, otherwise known as the Beveridge Plan.