Written by a team of internationally respected experts, this book explores the conditions under which social policy, defined as the public pursuit of secure welfare, operates in the poorer regions of the world. Social policy in advanced capitalist countries operates through state intervention to compensate for the inadequate welfare outcomes of the labour market. Such welfare regimes cannot easily be reproduced in poorer regions of the world where states suffer problems of governance and labour markets are imperfect and partial. Other welfare regimes therefore prevail involving non-state actors such as landlords, moneylenders and patrons. This book seeks to develop a conceptual framework for understanding different types of welfare regime in a range of countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa and makes an important contribution to the literature by breaking away from the traditional focus on Europe and North America.

Review of the hardback:‘This is the book that social policy scholars have been awaiting a very long time. Thanks to Ian Gough, Geof Wood and their collaborators, we now have a rigorous, comprehensive, and extraordinarily nuanced and subtle analysis of social protection systems in the Third World. The scholarly challenge is truly formidable, and they have met it with courage and aplomb. Insecurity and Welfare Regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America is one of those rare books that no welfare state scholar or practicioner can ignore.’

Gosta Esping-Andersen