The Politics of the Welfare State provides a thorough, comparative analysis of the welfare states in Canada, Sweden and the US detailing the emergence, growth, and recent unravelling of welfare states as well as the variation among them. Beginning with an overview of major welfare typologies and models and a detailed account of the welfare states in the three nations, the book moves on to cover the central theoretical approaches to welfare state analysis. The text concludes with a discussion of recent developments, which have transpired in the current era of globalization.

Gregg Olsen's profile page

Gregg Olsen is a professor and the associate head of the Department of Sociology and the University of Manitoba. He has written on book entitled The Struggle for Economic Democracy in Sweden (Avebury/ Gower: 1992), has edited Industrial Change and Labour Adjustment in Sweden and Canada (Garamond Press, 1988), and co-edited Power Resources Theory and the Welfare State: A Critical Approach (University of Toronto Press, 1998). He has also written a number of refereed papers.

"I would strongly recommend this book to all those interested in understanding the importance of comparative social policy for developing more informed theories of the welfare state." --Lester Parrott, North East Wales Institute

"Well written, comprehensive, and yet concise. . . . A welcome addition to discussions of the welfare state." --Trevor Harrison, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology

"It deserves to be read and used widely by European students." --Norman Ginsburg, London Metropolitan University