Redefining the State examines in historical perspective the changes of the role of the state with regard to public ownership and the scope of welfare in the main industrial and transitional economies. These changes have given rise to illuminating debates on the state's size, range, and function, and have involved important transformations concerning the boundaries between the public and private sector, the forms and extent of privatization, and the nature and content of public welfare. These debates and transformations are of critical importance to understanding the actual and potential scope of the state in any economy.