Most states in the world make some provision for the welfare of their citizens. Every state engages with health care provision, almost all provide education services, and, after an explosion of interest in recent years, a substantial majority now have national schemes in place for cash assistance.

Welfare states matter for people’s lives – but there is little agreement about what one is. What are these states trying to do, and why? The book discusses the institutions and methods that characterise welfare states around the world. It focuses on the aims, purposes and justifications for social welfare services in order to explain what the welfare state is for.

“Concise and superbly written, this excellent book is must read for anyone who wants to understand the welfare state.” Daniel Béland, McGill University

"A brilliant critical contribution and powerful overview about how we got here and what is at stake .... obligatory reading for those of us who align our work with the Global South through the prism of human rights, and the struggles of migrants and indigenous peoples in Latin America and beyond." Camilo Perez-Bustillo, Saint Mary’s College of California

Professor Paul Spicker is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy in Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen and a writer and commentator on social policy. His studies of housing and welfare rights developed from his early career and his research has included benefit delivery systems, the care of old people, psychiatric patients, housing management and local anti-poverty strategy and he has published widely in the field. He is a consultant on social welfare in practice, working for agencies at local, national and international levels.