ABSTRACT
The roots of the concept of the Welfare State go back far into the past. The members of local communities have always tended to feel a sense of collective responsibility for their less fortunate brethren. Up to the end of the nineteenth century it was generally accepted that the responsibility for such welfare services as were provided should be a local rather than a national one. Indeed, the central Government had neither the resources nor the administrative machinery to intervene effectively itself. During the early nineteenth century the general prevalence of laissez-faire beliefs was unfavourable to the development of welfare services. In the smaller communities of the past, the better-off had the poor always close at hand and were forced into at least a paternalistic concern for their welfare. As the century wore on, a number of factors began to lead towards a more positive attitude towards State action for social welfare.
