Transformation of the Welfare State

Abstract

Abstract This book is the outgrowth of a large‐scale comparative project on the changing landscape of the welfare state initiated by the author in 1997. In it, it is argued that the changes in welfare policy being witnessed in Europe and the USA are not marginal adjustments to the borders of the welfare state, but represent a fundamental shift or transformation in the design and philosophy of social protection. The author argues that there has been a turn away from the conventional welfare‐state emphasis on broad‐based entitlements, passive income supports, and publicly delivered benefits, towards a new ‘enabling’ approach under which welfare allocations are more selective on the bases of income and behaviour, and are activity related, and privately delivered. The shift to this ‘enabling state’ is traced, and evidence provided of how the new system promotes work and economic inclusion over protection, and how it changes the nature of social cohesion, diluting the role of government and thickening the glue of civil society. The likely readership is sociologists, political scientists, economists, historians, and social workers.

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