Spain is different was a favourite tourist board slogan of the Franco dictatorship. Is Spain still different? This volume provides an original series of analyses of how politics in democratic Spain has developed since the remarkable success of the transition to democracy.

This volume presents research on the recasting of European welfare states from the European Forum on Welfare at the European University Institute in Florence. The chapters include both comparative analyses of topical issues (such as reforms of the major social programmes: pensions, health, social security and the changing political cleavages in welfare politics), and in-depth studies of changes in the major European countries.