نبذة مختصرة : Article is concerned with three fundamental issues of the research on welfare states: definitions, theories of its origins and typologies. There are four basic definitions: institutional (base of the welfare state is embodied in welfare institutions), normative (common good of the society based on minimal standard of living conditions for all), quantitative (majority of state income is deserved for welfare purposes), societal (welfare state as a type of society). We are convinced about the posibility of the convergence among first three mentioned definitions (societal concept is not according to our opinion very useful, because there are better concepts to describe modern society – e. g. industrial society). There are four general explanations of the origins and development of the welfare state: industrial theory (e. g. H. Wilensky), class theory or power-resources model (e. g. F. Castles), theory of governmentality (e. g. M. Dean) or institutional (e. g. T. Skocpol). It is impossible to find any functional convergence among these approaches and the choice of one of them is often connected with meta-theoretical motives of the researcher. The most used typologies are based especially on criterions, such as combination of the state, market and welfare programs, specific combinations of social policies, portion of GDP for welfare tasks etc. Comparison of these typologies shows their similarities, regardless of the criterion.
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