POLITICAL SCIENCES

Answer of Questions According to the Field of Political Sciences

Answer of Questions According to the Field of Political Sciences

Question1). What is meant by the term "the welfare state" today in contemporary Britain?

Welfare State represents various programs, transfers, and assistance afford by the Government or relevant organizations designed at recovering the well-being of individuals. It is impossible to develop a welfare state which can fulfil well-being of the whole population, as there are limitless wants but limited resources. As a result, governmental authorities must decide on welfare priorities, which generate political debates usually involving a discussion of social needs and risk. Initially, on the whole, welfare states look for to address recognized social needs. For example, that Britain's needs in 1930s tend to be very different from the one of contemporary Britain (Lewis, 2002, pp. 331-357).

A welfare state in the modern British sense may differ from the early eras of initiation of the welfare state after 1900s. Amongst most of the welfare attributes in Britain, the foremost attribute is the occupational pension which suppose to be a success story amongst Britain's welfare policies. In Britain, reforms of Thatcher's and Major's conservative governments have shifted priority from the first-tier flat-rate basic pension to second-tier occupational and personal pensions. As a result of this by the end of the 1990s, 10.5 million of the British workforce had access to an employer-provided occupational pension scheme. In modern Britain, extensive work was completed for the poor people, tackling health issues. The modern Britain welfare state can also be known as the outcome of the existence of National Health Service Act, and Assistance Act (Baldwin, 1990, pp. 15-21).

Social security, education, health and housing are considered as the main components of the welfare state. Contemporary arguments about the welfare state pay immense emphasis on these components. After 1945, the structure of the welfare state had changed. Before 1945, there was Poor Law. Poor Law paid emphasis on these components. By paying emphasis on these components, Poor Law made an attempt to respond to poverty which is absent in today's structure.

Question2). What are the essential characteristics of ONE of the FF models: (i)"liberal" welfare states (ii)"conservative “welfare states (iii)"social democratic" welfare?

In this question out of the three FF models, I selected the social welfare state model to describe its characteristics.

The social welfare system can be defined as the social system in which government takes the responsibility to cater the needs of the citizens. In this model, government is obliged to provide healthcare, education and unemployment compensation. In social welfare model, the government prefers to allocate resources for the benefits and fulfilling the needs of the people most in need. In order to accomplish this goal, it is imperative for the government to practice tight bureaucratic control that is associated with the work of resource allocation (Tiffin, 1982, pp. 55).

According to the social welfare model, it is the priority of the government to make the provision of services to the people in need in the best possible ...