general welfare

(noun)

A General Welfare clause is a section that appeared in many constitutions, as well as in some charters and statutes, which provides that the governing body empowered by the document may enact laws to promote the general welfare of the people, sometimes worded as the public welfare.

Related Terms

Examples of general welfare in the following topics:

  • Promoting the General Welfare

    • In many constitutions, the general welfare clause has been used as a basis for promoting the well-being of the governed people.
    • The General Welfare clause is a section of the Constitution-- as well as certain charters and statutes-- which provides that the governing body empowered by the document may enact laws to promote the general welfare of the people.
    • There have been different interpretations of the meaning of the General Welfare clause.
    • General Welfare clause arises from two distinct disagreements: The first concerns whether the General Welfare clause grants an independent spending power or is a restriction upon the taxing power; the second disagreement pertains to what exactly is meant by the phrase "general welfare. "
    • Illustrate how the General Welfare clause of the Constitution is applied to public policy

  • Preamble

    • In deciding whether the proposed project constituted a "public use", the court pointed to the Preamble's reference to "promot[ing] the general Welfare" as evidence that "[t]he health of the people was in the minds of our forefathers".
    • Surely this is in accord with an objective of the United States Constitution: '* * * promote the general Welfare. '"
    • We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

  • History of the Welfare State

    • Marshall identified the welfare state as a distinctive combination of democracy, welfare and capitalism.
    • The general term may cover a variety of forms of economic and social organization. "
    • Ward's writings had a profound influence on a young generation of progressive thinkers and politicians whose work culminated in President Franklin D.
    • Aid could include general welfare payments, health care through Medicaid, food stamps, special payments for pregnant women and young mothers, and federal and state housing benefits.
    • In the 1970s, California was the U.S. state with the most generous welfare system.

  • The Impact of Court Decisions

    • Some national constitutions in effect define their governments' core businesses as being the provision of such things as justice, tranquility, defense and general welfare.

  • Liberalism

    • Conservatism shares an ideological agreement on limited government in the area of preventing government restriction against economic civil liberties as embodied in the ability of people to sell their goods, services or labor to anyone they choose free from restriction except in rare cases where society's general welfare is at stake.
    • Novak, liberalism in the United States shifted in the late 19th and early 20th century from classical liberalism (endorsing laissez-faire economics and constitutionalism) to "democratic social-welfarism" (endorsing such government involvement as seen in the New Deal).
    • According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "In the United States, liberalism is associated with the welfare-state policies of the New Deal program of the Democratic administration of Pres.

  • Promoting Public Welfare and Income Redistribution

    • Social welfare programs seek to provide basic social protections for all Americans.
    • The United States has a long political history of seeking to implement policy to promote public welfare.
    • He did so through the establishment of programs such as Medicare and Medicaid-- federal programs that exist to the present day that ensure certain levels of health care coverage for America's poor and elderly.The Great Society initiative further established educational programs such as the National Endowment for the Arts and generally deployed the executive bureaucracy to better welfare programs for the American public at large.
    • Current American politicians also attempt to ensure that programs exist to promote public welfare.
    • Social Security exists to this day as a federal program to promote public welfare.

  • Foundations of the Welfare State

    • The welfare system in the United States was created on the grounds that the market cannot provide goods and services universally.
    • In 2002, total U.S. social welfare expenditure constitutes roughly 35% of GDP, with purely public expenditure constituting 21%, publicly supported but privately provided welfare services constituting 10% of GDP and purely private services constituting 4% of GDP.
    • Examples of the Liberal welfare state include Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the United States.
    • This compared to France and Sweden whose welfare spending ranges from 30% to 35% of GDP.
    • Compare and contrast the social-democratic welfare state, the Christian-democratic welfare state and the liberal welfare state

  • Welfare Reform

    • Welfare reform has attempted many times to remove welfare altogether by promoting self-sufficiency, but has been unsuccessful in this regard thus far.
    • Welfare reform refers to improving how a nation helps those citizens in poverty.
    • Before the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, welfare assistance was "once considered an open-ended right," but welfare reform converted it "into a finite program built to provide short-term cash assistance and steer people quickly into jobs. " Prior to reform, states were given "limitless" money by the federal government, increasing per family on welfare, under the 60-year-old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program.
    • This gave states no incentive to direct welfare funds to the neediest recipients or to encourage individuals to go off welfare benefits (the state lost federal money when someone left the system).
    • Describe the features of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 under President Bill Clinton

  • The Elderly

    • There are several social policy challenges relating to the elderly, who are generally over the age of 65 and have retired from their jobs.
    • The elderly, often referred to as senior citizens, are people who are generally over the age of 65 and have retired from their jobs.
    • Roosevelt's "New Deal. " Social Security is currently the largest social welfare program in the United States, constituting 37% of government expenditure and 7% of GDP.
    • The Medicare population differs in significant ways from the general population.

  • Public Health

    • The United States Public Health Service (PHS), led by the Surgeon General of the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, headquartered in Atlanta, are involved with several international health activities in addition to their national duties.
    • A social gradient in health runs through society, with those who are poorest generally suffering poor health.
    • However even those in the middle classes will generally have poorer health than those of a higher social stratum.
    • The United States Public Health Service (PHS), led by the Surgeon General of the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, headquartered in Atlanta, are involved with several international health activities, in addition to their national duties.
    • The public health system in India is managed by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare of the government of India with state owned health care facilities.