WELFARE STATE, PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

The establishment of well-being societies, which began decisively in the period between the wars, and reached its purest expression in the fifties and sixties of the last century, constitutes the material expression of the current social contract of rawlsian basis. The achievement of large levels of economic performance together with the fulfillment of high standards of quality of life of its populations was a direct consequence of several elements that come from the moderate intervention, but protagonist, of the public institutions in the economic and social scope. Thus, on the basis of a free-market economic system and a social model that ensures the minimum material sustenance of their populations, the most advanced welfare states have succeeded in providing the greatest grain of social development in the history of mankind. The objective of the present work is to show the theoretical, economic and social model that supports the current western societies and to emphasize the importance of public institutions, as regulators and promoters of the system, and of social justice for their success. To do so, expose itself is the process of historical configuration of the welfare state to, through the deductive method, to conclude the necessary implication of public institutions in policies favoring social justice.