Introduction

This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes Welfare and state are among the most ambiguously employed terms in contemporary English political vocabulary. In the latter 1970s, the welfare state concept has been enmeshed in embattled slogans that have raised the level of public anxiety, even as it has also been utilized in the more dispassionate analyses of social scientists. In describing and analyzing the general evolution of welfare states in the Western world, the book lean heavily on the examination of the development of social security. Education and Social Security Entitlements in Europe and America," expands both the time and policy area frames by examining how access and entitlements to social security benefits and education services came to be differently extended on the two continents. The description, in quantitative and qualitative terms, focuses on the social security systems.