Since the late 1990s, new strategies concerning the role and shape of welfare states have been formulated, many of which are guided by a logic of social investment. This book maps out this new perspective and assesses both its achievements and shortcomings. In doing so, it provides a critical analysis of social investment ideas and policies and opens up for discussion many of Europe’s most pressing concerns—such as an aging population, the current economic crisis, and environmental issues— and whether social investment can provide adequate responses to these challenges.

Product Description: This book focuses on the relationship between European integration, its outputs and national institutional and political settings. It explores the political mechanisms through which the EU plays a role in domestic social policy changes.

Product Description: How do European states adjust to international markets? Why do French governments of both left and right face a public confidence crisis? In this book, leading experts on France chart the dramatic changes that have taken place in its polity, economy and society since the 1980s and develop an analysis of social change relevant to all democracies...read more

This text seeks to counter the somewhat unsubstantiated speculation about the impact of globalization upon welfare states. Combining both theoretical and empirical analysis it asks 'What is globalization, and how has it been implicated in recent changes to European welfare states?'