The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State (Oxford Handbooks in Politics & International Relations) Hardcover – 15 Jul 2010

Review

Students new to transnational comparative social policy focusing on the rich societies of the West will find it invaluable. The Handbook will also, of course, be useful for teachers and researchers, in mapping out contemporary themes and issues. (Critical Social Policy)

This landmark book achieves its aspiration to provide the "most authoritative survey and critique of the welfare state yet published"... It transcends Christopher Pierson's fine Beyond the Welfare State and should be part of the foundation collection in any college library. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above. (D.B Robertson, Choice July 2011)

This is a landmark book for international scholarship in social policy. It has been compiled by some of the leading international scholars in the field and published, in some style, by Oxford University Pressall academics in the field should ensure that university libraries acquire copies of the book. It will prove to be an essential reference for all those studying social policy, as well as many in politics, public administration, sociology and other cognate subjectsMore generally, it is attention to detail, co-existing with breadth of vision and reach, which make this such an attractive book. The editors and their contributors are addressing most of the big questions that underpin the history of the welfare state and its future prospects, and they are doing this on an international scaleIf you are not passionate about social policy before encountering this Handbook, then surely you will be once you have begun to delve into it. (Journal of Social Policy)

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, written by an impressive array of scholars, is the book to read to understand the welfare state in all its complexity, from philosophical foundations to methodological and substantive theories, from policies and processes to actors and institutions, and from established welfare states to emerging ones. (Vivien A. Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Boston University)

This is not a book for the faint-hearted, nor for those looking for welfare-state lite. Instead, this large coherent volume offers a rich array of talented authors applying diverse approaches historical, philosophical, political, sociological, and economic to analysing and comparing welfare states around the world and to offering a powerful reassertion of their resilience and their importance in a modern economy. (Nicholas Barr, Professor of Public Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science)

This new Handbook of the Welfare State represents state-of-the-art scholarship on one of the most important institutions of our times. The book brings together the world's leading authorities from many disciplines and provides an exhaustive and yet easily accessible treatment of the complete range of issues relevant for understanding welfare states. The volume has simply no rival, be it in terms of intellectual breath or scholarly quality ― a truly impressive addition to OUP's fantastic Handbook series. (Gøqsta Esping-Andersen)

About the Author

Francis G. Castles is Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University and at the Center for Social Policy Research (CeS) in Bremen. Stephan Leibfried is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Bremen, Director of the Collaborative Research Center "Transformations of the State " (TranState) and member of the Unit History and Institutions of the Center for Social Policy Research (CeS) there. Jane Lewis is Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Herbert Obinger is Professor of Comparative Public and Social Policy at the University of Bremen, directs the Unit History and Institutions of the Center for Social Policy Research (CeS) and directs two projects in the Collaborative Research Center "Transformations of the State " (TranState). Christopher Pierson is Professor of Politics at the University of Nottingham and Director of Teaching and Lead Editor of the British Journal of Politics and International Relations.