Abstract
A welfare-state is a state in which organized power is used to provide social services to a society that cannot provide these things for itself through market-based transactions. Studying the welfare-states of Germany, Sweden and the United States will provide us a valuable perspective in understanding how the state's role in a capitalist democracy affects the security, safety and overall well-being of all its citizens. The following paper seeks to examine how the welfare-states in these three nations have evolved and how the differences in their structures have impacted the socio-economic makeup of each modern society. One must acknowledge that the welfare-states of Germany, Sweden and the United States are embodied in the ideologies of three distinct welfare regimes namely the conservative regime, the social-democratic regime and the liberal regime. The ideals of these three welfare-states differ fundamentally and it is essential to our analysis to understand how and why they have historically emerged.
