ABSTRACT
The term ‘welfare state’ was introduced in the early 1940s by the British Archbishop William Temple as a reaction to what he called the Nazi and the Stalinist ‘warfare state’. 1 It has become a key concept in contemporary political discourse and academic debates, referring to a form of society in which the state provides its citizens with a certain level of well-being by means of income transfers and social services. 2 This definition is not exclusive and undoubtedly broad enough to leave room for various interpretations of the welfare state. In fact, there exist diverging approaches emphasizing various aspects of how a state intervenes in welfare matters and how we can grasp these efforts. 3
