Welfare state: philosophical and legal aspect

The doctrine of the welfare state is considered. The welfare state is a theory formulated by J. Keynes in the work “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” (1936) and developed by J. Myrdal, J. Strechi, A. Pigou and others, in accordance with which the state is a spokesman for the interests of all sectors of society and: 1) has a positive impact on the private sector through regulation and control – price policy, taxes; 2) implements a policy of full employment and prevention of economic crises with the help of a planning and forecasting system; 3) implements the policy of social services – social security, social insurance assistance to sick and old people, etc., due to which a high standard of living of society is achieved. The welfare state can be characterized as a theory of social protection in oligarchic societies. The formation of the theory of the welfare state was influenced by human rights theories, socialist and egalitarian theories. The theoretical basis of the theory of the welfare state are welfare theories (from classical liberal to social welfare theory). A universal classification of the welfare state does not exist and cannot exist, because it is impossible to take into account all aspects due to the lack of relevant statistics and indicators. In our opinion, despite certain reservations, G. Esping-Andersen’s classification is the most successful attempt at a quantitative analysis of various models of social protection. It is based on an analysis of the signs of accessibility and the degree of coverage of the population with certain social payments and incomes, while taking into account the real influence of various political forces on this process. G. Esping-Andersen identified three main models: liberal, conservative, social democratic.