This chapter focuses on the principles underpinning the post-war welfare state. Clearly it is important to explore both the practicalities and the principles of any policy or reform. Often success or failure can be judged in terms of the distance between the two. The ambitious nature of the post-war Labour government’s reforms always made it likely that their reach would outstrip their grasp. However, in the case of the welfare state, it is likely to be especially helpful to start with its principles, because the many criticisms that have since been made about the welfare state, have tended to focus on these. Clearly there are interconnections and overlaps between principles and practice, but it is also necessary to differentiate between the two. Two key questions are raised here. First, what were the principles underpinning the welfare state? Second, where, crucially, do problems lie – with those principles themselves – as we have frequently been told by critics of the welfare state – or with their interpretation and practical implementation?

According to the social policy academic, John Baldock, ‘societies in which a substantial part of the production of welfare is paid for and provided by the government have been called ‘welfare states’. While the term’s definition is contested: ‘It remains important because of the frequency with which it is used, by politicians, in the media, and by ordinary people, and because, historically, the welfare state was at one time understood as the twentieth century’s most complete answer to social need’ (Baldock, 2012, 22).

As Kynaston has noted, most European countries established some kind of state welfare system after the war: ‘As state-provided welfare spread across a reconstructed Western Europe during the 1950s, it was soon clear that this was far from being a uniquely British [development]’ (Kynaston, 2008, 435).