The essays in this volume, The Future of the Welfare State, stem from a lectures series delivered at the premises of the British Academy in London, arranged by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, a private foundation based in Stockholm, Sweden. The aim of publishing these essays is to highlight the importance of the contributions of the humanities to current affairs and debate. This volume takes the future of the welfare state as its point of departure and deals with themes deemed important, characteristic and relevant to our times: the social costs of welfare, public attitudes to welfare and future challenges to welfare.