Welfare States in Transition

`An impressive editorial feat which attests to the potential for well-structured and consistently integrated comparative social analysis providing, not only a cogent evaluation of the ironies of current policy developments, but also asserting that economic and political configurations may well ensure that "welfare states in transition" could retain the most positive and popularly valued elements of their "aquis"′ - British Journal of Sociology

`Welfare States in Transition gives a comprehensive overview of the current state of affairs, as well as the problems of, on the one hand, the "established" welfare states, and, on the other, some of the states that do not have comprehensive welfare schemes, but which struggle with the social policy issues, and have to make decisions which also have an impact on the belief in the `welfare′ concept as a whole.′ Acta Sociologica

`This important collection of studies by political scientists and sociologists investigates the diverse responses of welfare states to their increasing unaffordability.′ Population and Development Review

`This wide-ranging comparative analysis of contemporary and future changes in welfare states looks at the different trajectories of such states in Europe, North America and the Antipodes, and the emerging scenarios in Latin America, East Asia and Central and eastern Europe. Authors from these regions examine the current structures of social protection, consider the causes of the current welfare state crisis, and highlight evolving trends for welfare policy.′ International Social Security Review

′This volume contains nine chapters developed out of a study originally commissioned by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development as part of its preparations for the Copenhagen World Summit in March 1995.... an exceptionally coherent book which offers readers clear and wide-ranging access to some of the most innovative and informed analysis currently being produced by students of welfare states. In the editor′s, words, it tackles "the future of the beleaguered welfare states of Western Europe, North America and the Antipodes (Australia and New Zealand), and the prospects for welfare state construction in the newly democratised nations in East Asia, Latin America and East Central Europe"... What is distinctive about the analysis found in all the chapters of this book is that it places the operation of welfare systems at the very heart of the adjustments that countries are having to make, or sometimes failing to make, in the face of a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive world market.... an exceptionally informed and intelligent debate about the future of the welfare state.′ John Baldock - Policy Studies