biographer A. J. P. Taylor wrote that "[i]t would be unfair to say that Bismarck took up social welfare solely to weaken the Social Democrats; he had had it in mind for a long time, and believed in it deeply. But as usual he acted on his beliefs at the exact moment when they served a practical need". When a reference was made to his friendship with Ferdinand Lassalle, a democratic and state-oriented reformist socialist, Bismarck stated that he was a more practical socialist than the Social Democrats. Bismarck justified his social welfare programs by stating that "[w]hoever has pensions for his old age is far more easier to handle than one who has no such prospect. Look at the difference between a private servant in the chancellery or at court; the latter will put up with much more, because he has a pension to look forward to". Overview According to William Harbutt Dawson, despite being labeled socialist by his opponents, Bismarck's social legislation sought to preserve the existing economic order and state in Germany. This was in stark contrast to socialists, who sought to subvert the power of the existing state and eventually replace the capitalist order with a socialist economy. The Prussian welfare state was developed by the German academic Sozialpolitiker (Social Policy Supporter) group, intellectually associated with the historical school of economics. At the time, the historical school of economics influenced social democracy in the United Kingdom and progressivism in the United States as well as the current post-World War II German economy (the social market economy) which is a continuation of similar policies. Social legislation The 1880s were a period when Germany started on its long road towards the welfare state as it is today. The Centre, National Liberal and Social Democratic political parties were all involved in the beginnings of social legislation, but it was Bismarck who established the first practical aspects of this program. The program of the Social Democrats included all of the programs that Bismarck eventually implemented, but it also included programs designed to preempt the programs championed by radicals. Bismarck's idea was to implement the minimum aspects of these programs that were acceptable to the German government without any of the overtly socialistic aspects. Bismarck opened debate on the subject on 17 November 1881 in the Imperial Message to the Reichstag, using the term practical Christianity to describe his program. In