The idea of welfare state symbolising state intervention came to replace Its laissez faire system. The power of state expanded at the expense of market and the former assumed a wide variety of responsibilities.
However, it came to be criticised for its weaknesses. Let us look at some of those:
(1) Welfare state led to creation of a large bureaucracy as government departments and agencies kept multiplying. This causes delay and inefficiency and involves huge expenditure. Vast expansion of welfare activities of state also causes decline of voluntary associations.
(2) Increased welfare spending means higher taxes and, therefore, lower investment in industry.
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(3) It has also been pointed out by critics that welfare state creates a dependency culture among people, thereby discouraging initiative and the spirit of enterprise.
(4) Policy of full employment pursued by welfare states and artificial increase in wages under trade union pressures, it is argued, cannot be sustained economically.
In spite of the attack on welfare state made by its critics, it cannot be denied that people in general and disadvantaged groups in particular have immense benefited from it. The concept of welfare state successfully removed the opposition between individual freedom and state power.