Social state: towards the history of the concept

Favorable conditions for forming the theory of social state appeared only when the phenomena of the state and society began to differ both terminologically and conceptually. The concept of society was quite often used as a synonym of another concept - “state”, it was this concept that acted both as the name of the future goal and as an integral way of understanding the content and results of past processes related to charity and welfare. The idea of a social state is rooted in deep antiquity. It showed itself rather vividly in the activities of the Athenian reformer Solon and his relative Pisistrat, in the surprisingly active social policy of Byzantium. In the new historical conditions, German scientist Lorentz von Stein, guided by the Hegelian philosophy, especially actively and fruitfully developed this idea. Stein was captured by Hegel, his concepts and methodology and it initially allowed Stein to penetrate the essence of social and political phenomena, but as scientific thought developed, Hegel and Hegelians began to lose their former popularity with emerging social democracy in Germany. Stein’s controversy with Robert von Mole, co-author of the concept of the rule-of-law state, did not contribute to this. In the end, those authors who, like Adolf Wagner, did not oppose ideals of the social and rule-of-law states, but connected them, achieved the greatest success in the homeland of the spiritual father of the theory of social state.