(1) The "logic of industrialism" - economic growth and the aging of the population create the necessity to form a social welfare state.

(2) Neo-Marxist theories - welfare states were created to mediate the inevitable contradiction of capitalism between capital accumulation and democratic legitimacy. Welfare states are the tools of capitalists. They are used to "deradicalize" labor, to control it.

(3) Simple democratic argument - welfare states emerge from and reinforce a logic of democratic conflict.

(4) The Piven and Cloward Thesis - elites concede social policies to protest groups. Popular disruptions cause these elite concessions.

(5) Social democratic arguments - welfare states and democratic institutions function symbiotically to shift class conflict into the arena of social policy and representative institutions.

The earlier and more fully workers become organized into centralized unions and a social democratic party, and the more consistently the social democratic party controls the state, the earlier and more complete the development of the modern welfare state.

(6) International causes - international competition and the need for "domestic compensation" directs coalitions to support social policies.