A unique comparative examination of the different ways in which modern democratic societies provide welfare today, with special attention to the US, Japan, Britain, Scandinavia, West Germany, and Israel.

"Provides an important and distinctive contribution to our understanding of the modern welfare state....For those searching for concepts of the welfare state and for broad comparative sketches of alternative routes in welfare state development, this volume will be very illuminating."--American Political Science Review "Recommended reading...The attempt to evaluate welfare from a broad perspective, comparing conditions in the six welfare states and regions in terms of welfare mixes is totally new."--Japan Quarterly "The book is excellent....Each chapter is authored by experts on the welfare systems of their respective countries."--Stuart S. Nagel, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "A sensitive and sincerely constructive volume that contributes to the dialogue on the future of the welfare state."--Social Science Quarterly "A provocative and unique set of comparisons."--T.J. Pempel, Cornell University "Provides an important and distinctive contribution to our understanding of the modern welfare state....For those searching for concepts of the welfare state and for broad comparative sketches of alternative routes in welfare state development, this volume will be very illuminating."--American Political Science Review "Recommended reading...The attempt to evaluate welfare from a broad perspective, comparing conditions in the six welfare states and regions in terms of welfare mixes is totally new."--Japan Quarterly "The book is excellent....Each chapter is authored by experts on the welfare systems of their respective countries."--Stuart S. Nagel, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "A sensitive and sincerely constructive volume that contributes to the dialogue on the future of the welfare state."--Social Science Quarterly "A provocative and unique set of comparisons."--T.J. Pempel, Cornell University "Offers an introduction to national and international welfare issues for the general reader; provides new data and insightful analyses for welfare specialists; and raises fundamental issues that deserve the attention of citizens of modern society."--Journal of Asian Studies "Essential for specialists and libraries and will be of interest to a wider public policy audience."--Public Administration "This cross-national collaboration will stimulate much thought, debate, and research about the consequences and causes of differing household-state-market mixes in the social policies of modern societies."--Alfred J. Kahn, Columbia University "Anyone who has made up his mind to be for or against the modern welfare state should read this thoughtful and informative book; he might change his opinion."--Wassily Leontief, New York University "Scholarly and strong."--Newsweek