The major expanding function has been in providing for certain popular
demands. This has not been an optional expense. The growth of these
provisions has been a principal means of ensuring relative political stability
in response to growing discontent of the lower strata concerning the
increasing polarization of real income, which has been a steady feature of
the world system. Social welfare efforts by governments have been the
payoff that has been utilized to tame the ‘dangerous classes’, that is, to
keep the class struggle within limited bounds.