Published ten years after the first edition, this new Handbook offers topical, and comprehensive information on the welfare systems of all 28 EU member states and their recent reforms, giving the reader an invaluable introduction and basis for comparative welfare research. Additional chapters provide detailed information on EU social policy, as well as comparative analyses of European welfare systems and their reform pathways. For this second edition, all chapters have been updated and substantially revised, and Croatia additionally included.

The second edition of this Handbook is most timely, given the often-fundamental welfare state transformations against the background of the financial and economic crises, transforming social policy ideas, as well as political shifts in a number of European countries. The book sets out to analyse these new developments when it comes to social policy. In the first part, all country chapters provide systematic and comparable information on the foundations of the different national welfare systems and their characteristics. In the second part, using a joint conceptual foundation, they focus on policy changes (especially of the last two decades) in different social policy areas, including old-age, labour market, family, healthcare, and social assistance policies.

As the comparative chapters conclude, European welfare system landscapes have been in constant motion in the last two decades. While austerity is not to be seen on the aggregate level, the in-depth country studies show that all policy sectors have been characterised by different reform directions and ideas. The findings not only reveal both change and continuity, but also policy reversal as a distinct type that characterises social policy reform. The book provides a rich resource to the international welfare state research community, and is also useful for social policy teaching.

Published ten years after the first edition, this new handbook offers topical, and comprehensive information on the welfare systems of all twenty-eight EU member states and their recent reforms, giving the reader an invaluable introduction and basis for comparative welfare research.

Part 1: Introduction　 1. Reform Pathways of European Welfare Systems: Analysing Change and Continuity in a Broadened Geographical and Temporal PerspectiveJohanna Kuhlmann and Sonja Blum Part 2: Country Studies　 2. Austrification in Welfare System Change? An Analysis of Welfare System Development between 1998 and 2018 in AustriaAugust Osterle and Karin Heitzmann　 3. Belgium’s Welfare System: Still Lagging After All These YearsIve Marx and Lien Van Cant 4. The Bulgarian Welfare System: Reforms and Their Effects on Inequalities and Vulnerable Groups Between 1997 and 2018Rumiana Stoilova and Veneta Krasteva 5. The Restructuring of the Cypriot Welfare System: Will the New Provision System Prove to be a Success?Odysseas Christou and Christina Ioannou　 6. Hybridisation and Diversification Welfare System Developments Between 1993 and 2018 in the Czech RepublicToma? Sirovatka and Vojt?ch Ripka　 7. The German Welfare System: The Calm After the StormFlorian Blank 8. Denmark ? A Universal Welfare System with Restricted AusterityBent Greve 9. The Welfare System in Estonia: Between Liberalism and SolidarityMare Ainsaar, Ave Roots, and Avo Trumm　 10. The Spanish Welfare System: Towards a New Social and Territorial Pact?Paloma de Villota and Susana Vazquez-Cupeiro　 11. Still Holding Its Breath: The Finnish Welfare System under ReformJuho Saari and Liina-Kaisa Tynkkynen 12. The Recalibration of the French Welfare SystemPatrick Hassenteufel and Bruno Palier 13. ‘Liberalising’ Social Protection amid Austerity in GreeceStefanos Papanastasiou and Christos Papatheodorou 14. The Croatian Welfare System: A Lack of Coherent Policy Paradigm Followed by Inconsistent Policy Reforms? Ivana Dobroti? 15. Pathway to a Punitive Workfare System: HungaryKatalin Tausz 16. The Welfare System in Ireland Over the Last 20 YearsMary Daly 17. The Italian Welfare System: An Incomplete Transition?Igor Guardiancich and David Natali 18. The Lithuanian Welfare System Over the Last Twenty Years of Democratic Transition: Achievements, Challenges and Future ProspectsJolanta Aidukaite, Julija Moskvina, and Daiva Skuciene 19. Changes in Luxembourg’s Welfare System (1998-2018): Coalition Governments and Europeanisation as Major Driving ForcesNicole Kerschen　 20. Social Policy Reforms in Latvia: Shift Towards Individual Responsibility of WelfareFeliciana Rajevska and Olga Rajevska 21. The Maltese Welfare System: Hybrid Wine in Rightist Bottles? With Two-Sided Labels?Charles Pace 22. The Dutch Participatory State: Shift from a Welfare System of Collective Solidarity Towards Individual Responsibility in a Participatory SocietyMinna van Gerven 23. Politics of Welfare: The Polish Welfare System in the First Decades of the 21st CenturyRenata Siemienska and Anna Domaradzka 24. The Portuguese Welfare System: A Late European Welfare System under Permanent StressJose Antonio Pereirinha and Maria Clara Murteira 25. The Romanian Welfare System: From the Shadow of Equality to the Dazzle of DualisationCristina Ra?, Livia Popescu, and Valentina Ivan 26. The Swedish Welfare System: The Neoliberal Turn and Most Recent Struggles Over Decentralised Top-down Re-regulationSven E.O. Hort, Lisa Kings, and Zhanna Kravchenko 27. Restructuring the Slovenian Welfare System: Between Economic Pressures and Future ChallengeMa?a Filipovi? Hrast and Tatjana Rakar 28. The Slovak Welfare System: From Turbulent Times to StabilityOndrej Botek 29. The United Kingdom: New Devolved Welfare Systems in BritainChristopher Deeming Part 3: EU Social Policy and Comparative Perspectives　 30. European Union Social Policy ? Facing Deepening Economic Integration and Demand for a More Social Europe With Continuity and CautiousnessMiriam Hartlapp 31. The Development of Welfare State Spending in the EU, 1995?2015: A Quantitative Comparative AnalysisKarsten Mause 32. Landscapes in Motion: Welfare System Reform in 28 European Countries 1998-2018Sonja Blum and Johanna Kuhlmann