The Politics of the New Welfare State

Since the early 1990s, European welfare states have undergone substantial changes, in terms of objectives, areas of intervention, and instruments. Traditional programmes, such as old age pensions have been curtailed throughout the continent, while new functions have been taken up. At present, welfare states are expected to help non-working people back into employment, to complement work income for the working poor, to reconcile work and family life, to promote gender equality, to support child development, and to provide social services for an ageing society. The welfare settlement that is emerging at the beginning of the 21st century is nonetheless very different in terms of functions and instruments from the one inherited from the last century. This book seeks to offer a better understanding of the new welfare settlement, and to analyze the factors that have shaped the recent transformation.

Giuliano Bonoli holds a PhD from the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK), obtained in 1998 for a study on pension reforms in Europe. Before taking up his Chair at IDHEAP in 2005, he worked for various Universities in the UK and in Switzerland, including the University of Kent at Canterbury, the University of Bath, and the University of Fribourg. He is Professor of Social Policy at the Swiss graduate school of public administration (IDHEAP).


David Natali's work deals with the comparative analysis of social protection reforms across Europe, on the role of the European Union in the field of social protection. In 2002, he obtained a Phd in Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute of Florence. He is member of the OECD Working Party on pension markets. He is also member of the European board of ESPAnet (European Network of Social Policy Analysis). He is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, R. Ruffilli Faculty of Political Science in Forli.