ABSTRACT
Judging from the content of the Rome Treaty, which is primarily an economic document, the founders of the European Economic Community did not foresee a comprehensive social policy developing at the European level. Politics is redistributional when it involves taking wealth from some and transferring it to others. This type of political activity is inherently conflictual in relation to what might be called efficiency politics, which involves government programs to better the lot of society as a whole. The modern welfare state took shape during the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the 1920s. During this time, pension and social security programs were established for workers and needy citizens in Europe. The explosive expansion of social programs in advanced capitalist democracies during the twentieth century has been a national phenomenon in the sense that nation-states have controlled the pace and nature of change.
