| This study tests three theories of the expansion of the welfare state by means of a linear panel analysis during two overlapping time periods of 1950 to 1970 and 1960 to 1970. As used in this study, a welfare state is a state which maintains minimum standards of income, nutrition, and health.; The three theories are derived from modernization theory, sociology of politics, and political sociology. The modernization theory presents welfare-state expansion as an outcome of economic development; the sociology of politics theory places explanatory emphasis on stratification-based political demands; and the political-sociology theory casts the state in a causal, independent role.; The results showed state-centered factors to have a major immediate influence on changes in social expenditures independent of either economic development or stratification-based politics. This autonomous role of the state was found to be a recent event. |
