Welfare and Aging in the UK—Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

This chapter explores the welfare state system in the UK. We critically review its historiography, major institutions, and contemporary issues relating to its sustainability. We draw out one feature of the welfare state via an in-depth case study: its mental health-care system focusing from the legacy of Thatcherism to the present. From the 1970s onward, the post Second World War welfare state in the UK was thrown into question. The final quarter of the twentieth century had often been captured as the epoch of the crisis of the welfare state. The guarantees of the welfare state, long-term growth, and affluence, it was argued, had led to a permissiveness, overburdened democracy and inflationary tendencies associated with Keynesian demand management.