ABSTRACT
The phrase 'the Welfare State' has passed into our common language, often without much thought about what it really means. With the development of National Insurance, National Assistance and Family Allowances, and with the spread of the public provision of subsidized housing, it was generally felt that we had a new kind of State, a Welfare State. To examine the historical developments which lie behind the present forms which our welfare services take will be part of the business of this book. The believers in laissez-faire saw the functions of the Government as being primarily those of protecting the community against external attack, maintaining internal law and order and guaranteeing contracts; thus it provided a framework within which private enterprise and the free market could work. To begin, we must look back into history and trace the origins of the concepts underlying the modern Welfare State.
