WELFARE STATE DEVELOPMENT IN EUROPE SINCE 1930: IRELAND IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE. TWENTY THIRD GEARY LECTURE, 1992

The development of the modern welfare state is one of the major social and political changes in the Western countries during the past century. Together with a group of colleagues at the Swedish [nstitt|te for Social Research, Stockbolm University, l have for some time been involved in a comparative study of tbis change in 18 OECD countries. The purpose of this comparative researcb programme is to describe welfare state development in the Western countries, to attempt to explain tbis development, and also to look at some of the consequences of welfare state development.I To use the vocabulary of T. H. Marshall (1950) one coutd say that we are studying the development of social rights and the emergence of social citizensbip in the Western countries