Introduction

Abstract

The post-war decades have seen a dramatic expansion in the range and coverage of welfare services, accompanied by a general growth in government expenditure. In Western Europe at least, welfare states have become an established part of the political order. Nevertheless, the objectives and the effectiveness of these welfare services have been subject to recurrent scrutiny and periodic reform; and this was as true during the more optimistic and expansionist decade prior to the 1973 oil crisis as it is during the current period of public expenditure restrictions and retrenchment. Policy-makers have been forced to confront the perennial gap between promise and performance in the services for which they are responsible; by assessing existing policies they have sought to derive lessons for innovation and reform.