This part of the book consists of two general chapters dealing with youth policy across Europe. These set the scene for the various, more specialised chapters that follow. Both point to the way that policy is working to promote new forms of youth citizenship based on notions of independence and self-responsibility. The opening chapter, by Herwig Reiter and Gary Craig, offers a strong critical perspective on current neo-liberal trends in youth policy which they see as becoming dominant across Europe. They argue that these policies rest on certain (not necessarily correct) assumptions about young people's behaviour that have led to the widespread adoption of welfare-to-work policies and more conditions being laid on recipients of state benefits. They explore the tensions between the individualistic ethos that permeates many new youth employment policies and the structural constraints that continue to frame young people's lives. Gill Jones adds to this picture of change with an informative overview of current social protection policies in all the European countries covered in this book. She shows how neo-liberal approaches to state benefits, despite their stress on helping young citizens to achieve financial independence through employment, paradoxically increase young people's independence on their families. This interesting picture of the changing relation between the state, families and young people is elaborated on for specific countries in many of the later chapters.