This volume of The ANNALS explores the expansion of regulation in the welfare state and in social policy. Considering such crises as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, it argues that policy-makers have turned increasingly to regulatory measures to promote welfare norms and outcomes. As a result, the regulatory welfare state is reemerging.

Written by experts on regulation and governance in the context of social welfare, this volume’s papers challenge the welfare
state vs. regulatory state dichotomy and address a broad range of welfare state domains from multiple perspectives. Further, they demonstrate the reassertion of regulation and welfare in not only common policies and grand designs but also the structure and expansion of the state itself.