In this paper, we analyze if and how different levels of government offload clients onto other welfare state programmes that are not under their financial responsibility, focusing particularly on municipally-led social assistance schemes, the safety net of last resort. We start from the...

Welfare state futures / Stephan Leibfried and Herbert Obinger -- Towards a theory of the welfare state / Franz-Xaver Kaufmann -- The dog that didn't bark: economic development and the postwar welfare state / Francis G. Castles -- How do welfare states change? Institutions and their impact on the...

Politics of new social risk -- New social risks and the politics of post-industrial social policies / Giuliano Bonoli -- Political parties and new social risks: the double backlash against social democracy and Christian democracy / Hans Keman, Kees van Kersbergen and Barbara Vis -- New social...