Comparative Social Policy provides students with an introduction to cross-national social policy research, conveying the fascinating and challenging issues involved in conducting research of this kind. The book examines the theoretical, conceptual and methodological approaches, discusses prevailing concepts and reflects on methodological difficulties.

Jochen Clasen is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy in the Department of Applied Social Science, Stirling University. He has recently edited Social Insurance in Europe (1997) and co-authored (with A. Gould and J. Vincent) Voices Within and Without: Responses to long-term unemployment in Germany, Sweden and Britain (1998), both of which are published by The Polity Press.