Subject(s): Public welfare. -- Social security. -- Welfare state. -- Sociological context : Crisis of welfare state, market oriented direction, political tussle over the welfare state, global context, sociological definitions of welfare, limits of sociological approaches- gender and race -- Conventional welfare discourses- their relevance in 1990s : Duality of discourse, conventional approaches to defining key terms- social welfare, social policy, social wage, welfare state, normative political classifications of welfare discourses classifying perspectives, individualist/ anti collective discourses, social reformist perspectives, political economic perspectives, feminist perspectives, anti-racist perspectives, residual v/s institutional welfare, absolute v/s relative poverty, selective v/s universal provision, horizontal v/s vertical equity, welfare and citizenship -- Cross national trends in welfare state development : Broad national approaches to welfare, British welfare state- from poor laws to new rights, Australian experience- wage earners, welfare states, USA- traditional laggard, Japan- welfare state or welfare society, Nordic countries -- Distribution of state welfare : Who benefits from social welfare, health and other services, housing, education, beneficiaries from occupational welfare, private pensions, fiscal welfare, levying taxation, progressivity in tax system, tax exemptions/ expenditure, tax allowances for dependents, deductibility of gifts to charitable organizations -- Men's welfare state : Liberal theory and patriarchal welfare state, men and social welfare, family wage, male workers and usurpation of advantage, men and state power, corporatism and citizenship, welfare and role of state -- Women's welfare state : Economic position of women, women's role from legitimate dependence to proletarianization, education and training, women and employment, child care, women and caring, equity policies -- Welfare state in twenty first century