The Welfare State Reader - Softcover

3.67

39 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745635563 ISBN 13: 9780745635569

Publisher: Polity, 2006

The Welfare State Reader has rapidly established itself as vital source of outstanding original research. In the second edition of this highly respected reader, Pierson and Castles have comprehensively overhauled the content, bringing it wholly up-to-date with contemporary discussions about this most crucial area of social and political life. The book includes almost twenty new carefully-edited selections, all reflecting the very latest thinking and research in welfare state studies. These readings are organised around a series of current debates - on welfare regimes, on globalization, on Europeanization, on demographic change and the political challenges of the new century. There are also two substantial sections devoted to the future of welfare - assessing the new risks and new opportunities that confront policy-makers in an increasingly complex political environment. Each section, as well as the volume overall, is set in context by an editorial introduction.

As well as bringing together classic debates, The Welfare State Reader constitutes an invaluable guide to what is happening at the cutting-edge of welfare research. Read either independently or alongside he third edition of Pierson's Beyond the Welfare State?, it will give the reader an unrivalled overview of debates surrounding the welfare state.

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About the Author:

C. Pierson, Professor of Politics at the University of Nottingham

F. Castles, Professor of Social and Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh

Review:

"In this second and updated version of their Welfare State Reader, Pierson and Castles have collated a masterful compendium of classic texts and important recent contributions to the contemporary and comparative analysis of welfare states. Preceded by useful introductions to each section, the volume covers traditional theories and perspectives, evolving debates and new political responses to enduring and recent challenges to maintaining social policy provision at a large scale. The result is an essential and invaluable resource for students, teachers and researchers interested in the development and the future of modern welfare states."

Jochen Clasen, University of Edinburgh

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