Recasting European welfare states - an introduction, Maurizio Ferrera, Martin Rhodes; interests and choice in the not quite so new politics of welfare, Fiona Ross; reforming health care in Europe, Richard Freeman, Michael Moran; timing and the development of social care services in Europe, Valeria Fargion; motives, means and opportunities - reforming unemployment compensation in the 1990s, Jochen Clasen; defrosting the French welfare state, Bruno Palier; the employment crisis of the German welfare state, Philip Manow, Eric Seils; desperately seeking a solution - social democracy, Thatcherism and the third way in British welfare, Martin Rhodes; reforms guided by consensus -the welfare state in the Italian transition, Maurizio Ferreram Elisabetta Gualmini; the Scandinavian welfare state in the 1990s - challenges but viable, stein Kuhnle; change and immobility - three decades of policy adjustment in the Netherlands and Belgium, Anton Hemerijck, Jelle Visser; building a sustainable welfare state, Maurizio Ferrera, Martin Rhodes.