This book presents an in-depth analysis of social policy reactions to international economic shocks in four different welfare states, over a 40-year period. It reveals how expansion and retrenchment are shaped by domestic politics and existing welfare state institutions.

This book discusses key issues in global and regional social policy, exploring Bob Deacon's pioneering approach to regulation, rights and redistribution. It addresses the role of international actors in shaping social policy and discusses the problems and possibilities of new alliances for global social justice.

Using an approach that combines transnational and comparative social policy analysis with international relations, this book assesses various global social policy actors and compares their ideas and prescriptions about national health care systems. It highlights the importance of considering health policies across multiple scales.

Actors and Agency in Global Social Governance seeks to advance our understanding of the global dimension of social policy by applying the notion of global social governance on actors, their relations to each other, and their pathways as well as their footprints of influence in the specific policy fields of social concern in which they are active.
Focusing on a broad array of individual and corporate global social policy actors, ranging from internationally operating intergovernmental organizations to state formations and NGOs, the contributions to this volume draw a fuller picture of...