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Print Price: $13.50

Format:
Paperback
144 pp.
19 black and white halftones and graphs, 111 mm x 174 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199672660

Publication date:
March 2016

Imprint: OUP UK


The Welfare State: A Very Short Introduction

David Garland

Series : Very Short Introductions

The programmes that make up the welfare state vary from nation to nation and from time to time, and the balance between markets and government, and free enterprise and social protection is perennially in question. In contemporary political debate the welfare state seems to be mostly viewed as a problem rather than a solution, and welfare programmes appear constantly on the defensive.

ThisVery Short Introduction describes the modern welfare state, explaining its historical and contemporary significance and arguing that far from being 'a failure' or 'a problem', welfare states are an essential element of contemporary capitalism, and a vital concomitant of democratic government. In this accessible and entertaining account, David Garland cuts through the fog of misunderstandings to explain in clear and simple terms, what the welfare state is, how it works, and why it matters.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Readership : General readers with an interest in Western politics as well as undergraduate students of Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Work.

1. What is the Welfare State?
2. Before the Welfare State
3. Birth of the Welfare State
4. The Welfare State 1.0
5. Varieties
6. Problems
7. Neoliberalism and WS 2.0
8. Post-Industrial transitions: toward WS 3.0
9. The indispensable Welfare State
References
Further Reading
Index

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

David Garland is the Arthur T. Vanderbilt Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology at New York University. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and taught there from 1979 to 1997 before moving to the USA. A Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Garland is the author of a series of award-winning books on punishment and criminal justice, including The Culture of Control (OUP 2001) and Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition (OUP 2010), and the editor of Mass Imprisonment: Social Causes and Consequences (Sage, 2001).

Special Features

  • Offers a succinct, synoptic account of the range of social and political issues involved in the welfare state.
  • Provides a new basis for thinking about a familiar set of institutions.
  • Discusses the welfare state as a whole.
  • Places US and UK institutions against the comparative backdrop of European and Nordic welfare regimes.
  • Part of the bestselling Very Short Introductions series - over seven million copies sold worldwide.