ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a variety of perspectives – each having roots in one, or other, of the models of state and society – to explain the development and functions of state involvement in the provision of social welfare. It discusses the theoretical interrelationships between particular ideas about welfare and particular sociological models of state and society. The chapter describes four approaches to the development and functions of state welfare provision. They are: reformist views of welfare; the industrial state and welfare approach; the capitalist state and welfare approach; and 'radical right' views of welfare. The chapter focuses on this literature and highlights particular strands of feminist thought on welfare within some of the various approaches to welfare and the state. Social welfare may be argued to contribute to system integration by working to integrate a number of temporarily mal-integrating subsystems at points of accelerated societal change. State social welfare also contributes to a process of social integration.
