Why have struggles over the nature and scope of welfare provision become such endemic features of contemporary societies?

The crisis of the welfare state cannot be attributed only to economic crisis. Since the mid-seventies, although the levels of growth never became as important as those attained during the post-war period, western economies have grown significantly, and steadily. The conflict lays rather on the problems of equality vs. full-employment.

There are three different ways in which the welfare state is generally thought to influence economies: according to the first, which Andersen calls market-distortion views, the welfare state stifles the market and erodes incentives to work, save and invest. A second popular interpretation says that the welfare state is unsustainabl…(short extract)