Introduction; Part I: Key Concepts; What is welfare and public welfare; What is a welfare state?; Fiscal Welfare; Occupational Welfare; Prevention; Poverty; Benefits in Kind and in Cash; Gender Issues in Welfare States; Welfare States and the Life Course; Well-being and the Welfare State; Part II: Typologies and Methods; Welfare Typologies; Nordic Welfare States; Central European Welfare States; Central and Eastern Europe; Southern Europe; Liberal Welfare States; Third Way; Welfare States in North America: Social Citizenship in the United States, Canada and Mexico; Welfare State Changes in China since 1949; India as a Post-Colonial Welfare State; Inequality, Social Spending and the State in Latin America; The Middle-East; States of Health: Welfare Regimes, Health and Health Care; How to Analyze Welfare States and Their Development?; How Ideas Impact Social Policy; Drivers for Change; Different Worlds of Welfare Regimes: Applying the Ideal-Typical Method; Real-typical and Ideal-Typical Methods in Comparative Social Policy; Fiscal Crisis, Financial Crisis and the Fragile Welfare State; Globalisation and the Welfare States; Part III: Central Policy Areas; Social Security; Active Labour Market Policies; Housing Policy, the Welfare State and Social Inequality; Homelessness and Social Policy; Health Care; Old Age and Pension; Disability; Family Policies; Risk and the management of crime; Financing the Welfare State and The Politics of Taxation; Social OMC; Evaluation, Evidence; Long-Term Care; The Welfare State and International Migration: The European Challenge; Part IV: Future; Future of the welfare state?.