Books on family policy are always welcome for it is the Cinderella of welfare state research. And comparative works on family policy are even more welcome, given that the study of social policy has now turned strongly comparative. Gauthier's comparative aim is daunting: she researches 22 countries over a time span of 100 years.

This is an edited collection of papers which originated in a conference of the same title in 1993. The editors provide an opening chapter outlining the major themes and approach of the book, and there follow a further eight chapters from a range of contributors. In their opening chapter the editors write that the volume is concerned with ‘the exploration of a number of themes, including the gendered allocation of welfare resources in society and the role of family and state in influencing this division; the effect of gender in the creation and adoption of policies concerning health and welfare by pressure groups, political parties, and government at both local and national levels; and the extent to which the balance of voluntary and statutory bodies alters the nature of welfare, not least because of the differential involvement of men and women’ (p. 1).

This book is a welcome addition to the series Public Policy and Management, which should be familiar to social policy specialists. It seeks to ‘make sense of the unprecedented amount of change in ... the world of local government’ and provide ‘an overview of where local government as an institution is going’. At first it seems an impossible quest as the principal change-driver, the central government, operates by a process of ‘policy drift, opportunism and inconsistency’. And yet within the twists and turns of government policy, it is possible to discern a number of rational visions or strategic roles for local government which may (perhaps unconsciously) inform official and others' thinking about local government. It is these various perceptions about the role and purpose of local government which are the essential focus of this book (though the analysis does not go so far as to consider the neo-Marxist models of local government).

These volumes from the Danish National Institute of Social Research complete the first phase of a project on social security in Europe, dealing with cash benefits in the Nordic countries, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Volumes 2–4 of the series (including Recent Trends in Cash Benefits in Europe) contain a large amount of the raw material generated by the project, while volume 1, Social Security in Europe, Development or Dismantlement?, presents some findings in a relatively digested form.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when policies could be understood as instrumental attempts, influenced no doubt by ideology, at practical problem solving. Recently, however, it has frequently been more to the point to see policies as expressions of ideology which create as many (if not more) problems than they solve. The habitual residence test, which restricts eligibility for income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit to those who are deemed to be ‘habitually resident’ in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, is a case in point not least because it embodies no less than three components of Conservative Party ideology: scepticism towards Europe, disdain for the so-called ‘dependency culture’ and enthusiasm for further public expenditure cuts.