ABSTRACT
Governments have always been more reluctant to intervene in the general area of social policy in the United States than they have in Western Europe. Indeed, it was not until the 1930s that the federal government laid down a framework of law providing for welfare and Social Security benefits for the poor and the old. Even then, the extent and level of welfare coverage were limited. Contributory earnings-related pensions applied only to certain kinds of workers. Welfare was restricted to families with dependent children (in effect, mothers and children) and was distributed through the states on a matching federal-state basis. As a result, great disparities in the provision of welfare from state to state developed-disparities that remain to this day.
