From housing, pensions and family benefits, to health care, unemployment insurance and social assistance, the welfare state is a key aspect of our lives. But social programs are contested political realities that we can't hope to understand without locating them within the "big picture."

This book provides a concise political and sociological introduction to social policy, helping readers to grasp the nature of social programs and the political struggles surrounding them. It takes a broad comparative and historical viewpoint on the United States, using an international perspective to...

Exploring theincreasing involvement of theprivatesector in social policy, thiscollection examines the complex relationship between the public and private sectors from an international perspective, focusing on health and pension policies."