JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY VOLUME 38, NUMBER 3, SEPTEMBER 2011 ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 343±75 Images of Welfare in Law and Society: The British Welfare State in Comparative Perspective Daniel Wincott* Designed by Beveridge and built by Attlee's post-war Labour government, the welfare state was created during the 1940s. Britain has been seen ± in domestic debates and internationally ± as a world first: the place where both the idea and the practice of the welfare state were invented. I draw together comparative welfare state analysis with law and society scholarship (previously largely developed in isolation from one another) ± as well as using British political cartoons as a source ± to develop a revisionist historical critique of this conventional wisdom. First, the British welfare state has always been comparatively parsimonious. Second, the idea of the welfare state seems to have its origins outside the United Kingdom and this terminology was adopted relatively late and with some ambivalence in public debate and scholarly analysis. Third, a large body of socio-legal scholarship shows that robust `welfare rights' were never embedded in the British `welfare state'. INTRODUCTION In 1961 eminent social historian Asa Briggs wrote: `The phrase ``welfare state'' is of recent origins. It was first used to describe Labour Britain after 1945. From Britain the phrase made its way round the world.' 1 This account 343 ß 2011 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß 2011 Cardiff University Law School. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA * Cardiff Law School, Cardiff University, Law Building, Museum Ave., Cardiff CF10 3AX, Wales This article is an updated and developed version of my inaugural lecture for the Blackwell Law and Society Chair at Cardiff Law School. As an `inaugural' statement, a general aim here is to encourage a stronger dialogue between socio-legal studies and comparative welfare state analysis, in the belief that each has valuable lessons to teach the other. I am very grateful to my colleagues at Cardiff, members of the editorial board of the Journal of Law and Society, and particularly to Phil Thomas for many helpful discussions on the themes considered here. 1 A. Briggs, `The Welfare State in Historical Perspective (1961) 2 European J. of Sociology 221.