Welfare State and Social Citizenship in the 20th Century Europe

The Development of the European welfare state is seen as an essential element in the transformation of European societies which started in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The period witnessed a large breakthrough of industrialism and some decisive steps in the evolution of mass society. The second major step in the history of European welfare state took place in the period of economic and democratic reconstruction after the second world war. In those years, a significant development of democracy was guaranteed by the enlargement of both political and social citizenship’s rights in various European countries. Other countries followed the same itinerary during the “golden age” of the welfare state from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s. So the welfare state became an essential feature of the European social model. And it represents an high achievement of the Old Continent history and civilization. The analysis aims to sketch a long-term process of transformation of the European welfare states which has been characterized by common growth tendencies and similar developmental problems as well as persisting institutional variations. We are convinced that studies of this kind could also teach us something about the solutions to be found for the present and future challenges.