ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to recast the welfare state debate, particularly as it applies to the developing world and the related problems of widening inequalities and persistent poverty. The chapter argues that the modern welfare state has become an institutional anachronism despite its broad appeal. It offers some ways to think about the welfare state and the provision of important social services and the poverty reduction interventions. The chapter gives several empirical examples that illustrates about designing new redistributive pro-poor interventions in developing world settings and emphasizes that such interventions actually reach those who are most vulnerable and excluded from the welfare state. One of the key considerations in redesigning pro-poor interventions is cost. The modern welfare state, which emerged from a specific historical and economic context, is failing to effectively address contemporary political and economic challenges. As James Ferguson intimates, the old model of the welfare state is an institutional anachronism that needs to be jettisoned.
