Social Welfare State: Different Models Of Welfare States

Before going into depth about different models of welfare states, it is important to define what exactly a welfare state is and what it means. ‘Welfare state denotes a democratic state that, in accordance with its constitution, not only guarantees basic rights and personal and economic freedoms (stated under the rule of law), but also takes legal, financial and material measures to equalise social differences and tensions (up to a point). The principle of the welfare state to that extent is related to the goal of justice under the rule of law and is laid down in Articles 20 and 28 of the Basic Law’. (Petring et al, 2012).

Worldwide, there are many different varieties and models of welfare states. The three most common are liberal, conservative
The example of this which will be used in this essay, alongside the most well functioning example is Sweden. Many people see the ‘Social Democratic Welfare state’ model used in Sweden as the most ‘idealistic model’. Many people and nations look up to Sweden for their top-quality healthcare and education systems as there are known worldwide for being some of the best and most efficient. Sweden has the highest level of spending on social protection in the OECD, as well as the lowest proportion of income left to independent households - less than half its national income (Spicker, 2017). This model provides excellent comprehensive government funded primary and second level education alongside very high levels of social housing. This model also provides high subsidies for all types of housing and rent schemes. The ‘Social Democratic Welfare state’ in Sweden also provides for an excellent standard universal public healthcare and childcare. Most importantly, this model further allows for high employment levels, which reached 68.10% as of last year. (Trading economics, 2017), some of the highest
The ‘liberal welfare state’ provides free healthcare, however the contrast of this against the other welfare models is that this is only welfare model that only provides free healthcare for retirees and no other members of society. In 2014, The Commonwealth Fund ranked the United States dead last in a survey on overall healthcare ( Forbes, 2014). The ‘Social democratic welfare state’ provides for free public healthcare for all citizens, this a huge reason why many nations ‘look up’ to Sweden as their healthcare standards are so high, which results in extremely high living standards in Sweden. This is something many nations would aspire to