Translated from the Latin language, the term "social" means "public", "general." In other words, this definition is connected with the social life of people. In this regard, a social state is (in the broad sense) any state that is the result of social development. However, in a narrow sense, this power structure has special functions and is endowed with specific properties.
A social state exists and operates in close connection with such phenomena in public life as civil society, democracy, equality, freedom, and law.
It should be noted that the idea of forming such a structure arose by the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. The emergence of this idea was the result of objective processes in the social and economic life of society. Moreover, the basic principles - equality and freedom - in those conditions came into conflict with each other.
Theoretically, two approaches to the relationship between freedom and equality in society were formed.
Such figures as Mill, Smith, Locke, Constant and others defended the theory of individual freedom of man. At the same time, the social state was supposed to protect this freedom from any encroachment, including the government itself. At the same time, these figures understood that inequality would eventually come, but viewed freedom as the highest value.
According to another approach, which was proclaimed by Rousseau, everything should be subject to the principle of equality while maintaining the importance of personal freedom.
The principle of freedom contributed to the liberation of the initiative and initiative of people, the development of private enterprises, market relations. Thus, during the strengthening of the economic potential of bourgeois countries, individual freedom had an economic basis.
However, in the process of accumulation and development of wealth towards the end of the 19th century, the property division of society began, its polarization, which threatened with a social explosion. In these conditions, a transition from freedom to the establishment of equality was necessary. Thus, the emerging social state began to actively intervene in the socio-economic life of the population.
Subsequently, the idea of creating a new power structure received more recognition. The social state began to be put into practice, and its qualities and functions were reflected in the constitutions of modern countries.
For the first time such an organization of power was formed in Germany. To one degree or another, the principles of the social state are reflected in the constitutions of Portugal, Italy, France, Spain, Turkey and other countries.
Keynes's teaching was of great importance in the practical and theoretical development of the idea of forming this organization of power. Under the influence of the views of this English economist, the concept of a state providing universal prosperity arose.
Researchers note that the formation of the Soviet system was an undoubted catalyst for the development of an idea and its embodiment in public life in the West. She constantly declared in her Constitutions and other legal acts the social orientation of her policy.
Despite the fact that the political declaration and theory of socialism was propagated in the conditions of a real absence of civil society, democracy, law, freedom, equality, according to researchers, it is impossible to deny the real achievements in the sphere of public policy of socialist countries.
According to many authors, the formation of a social state is possible only in democratic conditions, and the system of organization of power should be legal (in the modern sense of this quality). Today, as experts say, the process of establishing this structure is not only political and economic, but also moral.