Global Dimensions of Public Administration and Governance: A Comparative Voyage

CHAPTER TWELVE

WELFARE SERVICES AND POLICIES

Health Care, Education, and Social Services

It was in the late Roman Empire that health care started as a service to local populations living near a military compound. After the fall of the Roman Empire, this service was taken over by the Roman church. In Catholic countries this continued to be so until the twentieth century, while in Protestant countries health care transferred to the local authorities from the sixteenth century on. Urbanization and industrialization brought about living circumstances that encouraged epidemics (malaria, typhoid fever, diphtheria, and so forth). From the middle of the nineteenth century, doctors and nurses advocated government policies for public health care. What ...