A welfare state is one that secures the economic, educational, and health-related wellbeing of its people by creating equal opportunity for all and distributing the nation's wealth fairly — and, above all, by accepting responsibility for helping those who, for whatever reason, are unable to provide for their own needs. There is considerable variation among the policies of different national welfare states.
Most national welfare states pursue some model of public–private partnership, such that certain welfare programs are carried out through the private sector.
The Origins of the National Welfare State
National welfare states emerged in the industrialized nations of the West from 1880 onward, particularly after the Second World War.
In Iran, every government that came to power after the White Revolution of 1963 (the Revolution of the Shah and the People) was a national welfare state.
Free meals in schools and factories; free education from primary school through university; free healthcare for lower-income classes; medical insurance for government employees, military personnel, business owners, shopkeepers, and even street vendors; housing built around factories for workers; long-term, low-interest agricultural loans for farmers; urban and rural cooperative societies for the welfare of farmers and their families; cooperative societies within government ministries and agencies for the welfare of their employees; a military cooperative society for the welfare of military families; and dozens of social-service organizations and state charitable bodies to assist society's lower-income classes — all of these were products of that great social, economic, and political transformation.
We therefore believe that the model of progress and welfare for Iran's future lies in implementing the principles of the White Revolution of the Shah and the People — a model that could also serve as a progressive, advanced template for development in all underdeveloped countries.
We strongly recommend that the United Nations and its relevant bodies apply this model of development in the world's poor and underdeveloped countries.