Publisher's Synopsis
Europe is undergoing a fundamental shift in its economic, political and social structures and this forms the context for significant changes in social and other public policies. The two sets of changes are obviously related - but how? Are European social policies simply responding to these economic and political changes in similar ways, or is the picture still one of difference and diversity between policies and policy systems throughout Europe? Developments in European social policy describes and analyses some of these changes and discusses the patterns of both convergence and divergence in the late 1990s. It provides an invaluable and topical review of trends in European social policy development and is intended for students on social policy, public policy and other social science courses as well as academics in the field.