This work is a comparative analysis of the development of health care, education and social welfare from small-scale, mostly informal voluntary arrangements toward collective institutions of national scope and controlled by the state. De Swaan examines the growth of poor relief, elementary education, urban sanitation and social security over several centuries in Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA, and shows how local authorities and later national governments became involved in resolving dilemmas of collective action which emerged whenever the established strata in society sought to protect themselves against the threats the poor represented. The rise of capitalism, urbanization and the formation of national states brought people together in increasingly extensive and intensive networks of dependency. To illuminate his research, the author combines two strands of thought which until now have remained separate: first, the theory of collective action provides a framework for the analysis of interdependent interests and joint activities; second, the tradition of historical sociology and especially the work of Norbert Elias allow him to develop a dynamic theory and order the multitude of facts from a developmental perspective. De Swaan concludes with a view of current problems of poor relief education and social welfare on a global scale.