ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the continuities between liberal societies and welfare states, and the changes that distinguish them, and second, on parallel developments in the legal domain. Welfare states were established in order to redress the social and economic inequality pervasive in liberal capitalist societies. Society as a whole assumes a general responsibility for providing for the welfare and well-being of the population by removing the functions from the private sector. For instance, the state apparatus characteristic of societies described as welfare states is markedly different from the states of liberal capitalism. A further aspect of the feature of welfare states lies in its accentuation of the centripetal tendencies of the modem nation state as the formerly more territorially dispersed power of markets, regions and local governments is centralized. The general conclusion is that the manifold changes introduced by the welfare state amount to a shift from the "liberal paradigm" of law to a "social welfare paradigm".
