Modern welfare states developed primarily to meet the ‘old social risks’ that confront the mass of the population during a standard industrial life course – retirement pensions, health care services, sickness and disability provision. Most analysis of the current wave of reforms focusses on these areas, and tends to emphasise retrenchment, restructuring, and decommodification. This book deals with the ‘new social risks’ that have now emerged alongside old social risks from changes in family life and work patterns – needs for child and elder care, new rights for women in relation to paid work, ... More

Modern welfare states developed primarily to meet the ‘old social risks’ that confront the mass of the population during a standard industrial life course – retirement pensions, health care services, sickness and disability provision. Most analysis of the current wave of reforms focusses on these areas, and tends to emphasise retrenchment, restructuring, and decommodification. This book deals with the ‘new social risks’ that have now emerged alongside old social risks from changes in family life and work patterns – needs for child and elder care, new rights for women in relation to paid work, measures to ease the transition into paid work, particularly for unskilled people, and the problems of social exclusion arising for some groups from policies like pension privatisation. It offers an original approach of the implications for national and EU level social policy‐making and contributes to theoretical work in this area. The detailed national case studies are written by national experts and are based on analysis of policy during the past 15 years and more than 250 interviews with key policy actors. The book is organised in a common framework that enables comparison of the significance of different national welfare state regimes and political institutions.