Marching to Bismarck's Drummer: The Origins of the Modern Welfare State

Ebeling, Richard M., Freeman

Soviet-style socialism may now be a thing of the past, but there is one form of statism that still dominates the world, including the United States: the modern welfare state. Its tentacles of paternalistic control reach into every corner of personal and social life. It has made all of us "children of the state," and weakened our desire and appreciation for self-responsibility.

Of course, things were not always this way. And it is worth recalling how this state of affairs came about. The modern welfare state had its birthplace in late nineteenth-century Imperial Germany under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. In the 1870s the Social Democratic Party gained increasing support from the …

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Publication information: Article title: Marching to Bismarck's Drummer: The Origins of the Modern Welfare State. Contributors: Ebeling, Richard M. - Author. Magazine title: Freeman. Volume: 57. Issue: 10 Publication date: December 2007. Page number: 4+. © Foundation for Economic Education, Incorporated Jan/Feb 2009. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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