The comparative welfare state literature has taken some important turns in the past decades, moving first from a focus on the causes of its growth to studies of retrenchment. Lately, scholarship has become more preoccupied with welfare state adaptation to the new risk and needs structure. This book falls squarely in the latter camp and includes European scholars, such as Bruno Palier, Guiliano Bonoli, and Peter Taylor-Gooby, who have been exploring this theme for some years now.

The starting point is that modern societies give rise to a set of new risks that are distinct from the traditional risk menu around which most welfare states were—and most often remain—molded. The new risks emerge primarily from demographic change, such as new household forms and aging; from labor market transformation, such as more unemployment and precariousness; and also from ongoing welfare state adaptation, such as pension reform and privatization. According to Taylor-Gooby et al. the new risks are distinct because they are often of a more transitory nature and because they affect citizens and life's stages that traditionally were not seen as being at risk. Illustrative key examples include the problems of reconciling work and motherhood, the risk of dependency in old age, and social exclusion.

Considering that contemporary welfare states were built around the risk structure of the old industrial era, the book's key question is how governments respond and adapt to the new reality. In sampling European countries that represent the variety of welfare regimes, the meat of the book lies in six chapters that provide country case studies and one that examines the evolving social policy role of the European Union. Much of the book's appeal lies in its rigorous and uniform chapter organization, each one beginning with a synoptic presentation of the intensity and pervasiveness of new risks in the respective country, followed by an examination of how government policy has responded. Taylor-Gooby's opening and closing chapters wrap it all up very well by highlighting cross-national similarities and diversity.

To begin with, one should congratulate the authors for their effort to present unusually well informed portraits of risk development and welfare state adaptation. With few exceptions, the country case studies are rigorous and comprehensive and yet succinct. For readers who seek a quick but solid panorama of welfare policies in contemporary Europe, this book is the place to start. One clear message that comes across is that all advanced countries face a set of essentially convergent new risk scenarios, in particular as regards employment precariousness, the difficulties of reconciling careers and motherhood, and the specter of severe dependency in old age. On one count, not surprisingly, there is more variation—namely, with regard to risks associated with ongoing welfare reforms and privatization, most notably in pension entitlements. Citizens face far more serious risks of inadequate protection where, as in the UK, governments have pursued radical privatization. It is a great pity that the book excludes the United States where, arguably, social inequalities and insecurity have risen most dramatically.

The greatest value of New Risks, New Welfare comes from its country-based examination of government responses. From the assembled case studies it is evident that convergent risk trends provoke highly divergent if not orthogonal policy. Much of the policy variation can be ascribed to path dependencies, adapting the old policy logic to new problems. Thus, Britain continues to favor targeting; Germany built its elderly care policy on top of the social insurance system; and Scandinavia's age-old adherence to universalism is replicated also in its child and old-age services. But there is also an unfolding process of regime “trespassing.” The Bismarckian models, like France, are adding an array of general revenue–financed social-assistance programs to address new risks, and this results in a certain welfare state dualism that mirrors evolving “insider–outsider” cleavages in society.

Besides path dependencies, there are other key factors at work. Governmental decentralization and a proliferation of veto points clearly slow down the process of adaptation, as is very evident in Switzerland and Germany. Financial constraints, especially as a consequence of the Maastricht Treaty's stipulations, are clearly also a major impediment to the launching of serious and therefore expensive new social policies. The chapter on EU policies is, in this respect, of special interest. Trine Larsen and Taylor-Gooby provide an excellent bird's-eye synopsis of EU-level policy making and raise the interesting hypothesis that member countries seek to push responsibility for the new risks toward EU institutions. But the EU is, in turn, blocked from intervening directly in social policy and responds therefore with mainly nonbinding targets, using the Open Method of Coordination, or with attempts to include social objectives in its employment directives. This suggests that EU integration is creating a policy vacuum by, on the one hand, restraining countries from spending their way out of rising social problems and, on the other hand, by refraining from picking up the slack.

All in all, this is a valuable book for those who seek a well-documented, no-nonsense, and up-to-date perspective on welfare state adaptation in Europe. It has its faults and weaknesses. There is virtually no systematic coverage of active labor market policies and their role in combating social exclusion. Considering that Denmark is here the most innovative and ambitious policymaker, it is a pity that the Nordic chapter omitted the Danish case. A second major shortcoming is that immigration is completely ignored, especially when we consider that immigrants must be hugely overrepresented among the new-risk clienteles in areas such as social exclusion and employment precariousness. And since the book explicitly assumes that the new risks tend to be more transitory than the old ones, it would have helped if the focus had been more on life course dynamics and mobility. Finally, there are questions that many readers probably will raise but which the book does not. Financial constraints are surely important, but how come heavy welfare spenders like Denmark and Sweden seem more able to overcome them than lean spenders like Spain or Italy? And why are strong unions in Northern Europe less an obstacle to reform than weak unions in, say, France?