In the United States, welfare has “ended as we know it.” In Western Europe, similar claims have been made – welfare states have been changed from “passive” to “active,” “workfare” has spread in many countries. In some respects, these claims are too broad. In the United States, the Social Security pension system and Medicare are very much alive – each more than ten times larger than “welfare” at its height. In Western Europe, there are large and expensive systems of health care, pensions, unemployment, and other benefits. Nevertheless, there are important changes in parts of the welfare systems, in both places, affecting significant populations.

This book deals with “welfare” in the United States, the program primarily for poor single mothers and their families, and “workfare” – or “activation” in Western Europe, the “active labor-market policies” that deal primarily with the long-term unemployed, lone parents, the unemployed youth, immigrants, and other vulnerable groups, usually lumped together as the “socially excluded.” I explore the ideologies and practices that have led to these changes, comparing different views of social citizenship.