Social Welfare and Social Insurance

European, demographic and social changes have called into question the financial stability and political support for existing national social insurance programmes. This book provides information about the cross-national differences and commonalities between social insurance schemes in Europe, and reflects upon their future roles.

This topical book examines social welfare in Scotland since devolution. In particular, it focuses on the politics of welfare during and after the devolution process; poverty and inequality; and the two single most important powers devolved to the Edinburgh Parliament, education and health. It is the first work to attempt such a synthesis.

A data-rich, evidence-based analysis of the impact Labour and coalition government policies following the financial crisis, with particular focus on poverty and inequality, by leading policy experts from the LSE, and Universities of Manchester and York.

Focusing on a range of welfare issues this book examines the views, values and perceptions of a number of theorists from ancient times to the 19th century, including Plato, St Aquinas, Hobbes, Wollstonecraft and Marx.

This reader brings together for the first time a collection of Peter Townsend's most distinctive work, allowing readers to review the changes that have taken place over the past six decades, and reflect on issues that have returned to the fore today.

This topical book examines and debates a range of themes facing Gypsies and Travellers in British Society, including health, social policy, employment and education.

Describing social assistance 'careers' in different national and urban contexts, this innovative book documents the strong interplay between personal biographies and policy patterns - a particularly useful perspective which complements the more structural, top-down approach of much international work in social policy.

It is widely assumed today that the 'welfare state' is contracting or retrenching as an effect of the close scrutiny to which entitlement to social security benefits is being subject in most developed countries. In this book, fifteen authorities from nine different countries investigate to what extent this assumption is warranted.

It is often argued that the regulated labour markets, relatively generous social protection and relative wage equality of European welfare states has become counter-productive in a globalised and knowledge-intensive economy. Using in-depth analysis of employment, welfare and citizenship in a range of European states, this book challenges this view.

As citizens we need information to exercise our social rights and responsibilities. However, information provision about welfare services is patchy and the 'information poor' are often disadvantaged in access to those services. This book explores how government information policies directly influence which service users claim their entitlements.

This book explores the Chinese and South-East Asian welfare systems, providing an up-to-date assessment of their character and development. In particular it examines their underlying assumptions and the impact of the processes of globalisation. As well as specific case studies, there is a comparative analysis of Eastern and Western welfare states.

A substantial, authoritative, third edition of this important textbook about the impact of economic priorities and pressures on social policies at a time when neo-liberal arguments for reducing the burden of welfare are more dominant than ever before.