Midgley and Tang's edited volume of case studies of social security programs around the world documents the universalisation of social assistance and organised savings (pensions) for vulnerable populations. The book includes case studies from middle-income and high-income countries characterised by a variety of approaches to welfare and different systems of government. Empirically, most of the discussion is about programs for older people, though some of the chapters discussing policy and programs, for instance, in the UK, Korea and South Africa refer to other populations, from children living in poverty to the unemployed.

The book is timely because of an ageing global population and because global policies have come to support direct payments to vulnerable populations as a means of improving quality of life and ensuring social protection. The chapters offer extensive historical information, quantitative data and sharp analyses of the effectiveness of social assistance and pension programs. At the same time, though, the book misses its moment because it lacks an overarching theoretical framework that connects the individual chapters while making a general argument. Written before the current financial crisis, the book is partly premised on the argument that social security performs a vital social good and should not be completely subjugated to economic concerns, from national budget deficits to artificially manipulating the labour market due to unemployment insurance. In the second chapter, James Midgley refers to Richard Titmuss' defence of social security as a good in its own right that should not be analyzed in market terms. He discusses Titmuss' argument that social welfare promotes social altruism and social solidarity and that welfare is compromised and not necessarily effective when driven by market principles.

Midgley does not agree with complete separation between social assistance and strategies of economic development, writing ‘The argument that governments should divorce social policy from economic issues and pay benefits solely on the basis of need or citizenship rights may be beguiling, but it fails to take account of the economic consequences of what are huge public expenditures’ (p. 78). He favours a ‘pluralistic policy approach’ that ‘allows the insights of different perspectives to be coherently harmonized’ (p. 79). Social assistance programs may work more effectively in some instances when connected to each other or when partly privatised or when linked to the market as in welfare-to-work programs.

Certainly, individual chapters pick up on these themes. The chapter on Norway questions if social assistance policies have contributed to social solidarity and examines arguments for how social welfare programs in Norway have affected economic development. The chapter on India argues that healthcare for the poor is vital to increasing economic productivity. The chapter on Korea documents how Korean governments viewed the relationship of welfare to economic growth, settling in the late nineties on ‘productive welfare’ that encouraged moving from unemployment assistance to work. Joon Yong Jo, the author, ends the chapter by examining both the lack of impact of social security programs on economic development and the ineffectiveness of certain welfare-to-work initiatives.

Yet, because the book has come out now, in the middle of a global financial crisis that has affected pensions and threatened entitlement programs, the lack of a stronger binding framework makes the book seem weaker than it may have otherwise appeared. At another moment in history, the book may have sufficed as a very informative text addressing fundamental questions and ideas about social assistance from the mid-twentieth century to today. Today, however, the premise of the book explaining how social security affects economic development should perhaps be reversed. In light of the current crisis, with economies contracting rapidly, perhaps we should possibly ask if privatisation and liberal market capitalism in general are good for social security and social assistance programs.

The editors were certainly not responsible for not predicting the decline of the global economy. Yet, if the chapters collectively had addressed how much states needed to assume responsibility for vulnerable populations, regardless of economic circumstances, or how important social solidarity and thus social welfare is for contemporary political systems, then the book would have offered a pathway to respond to our current condition. That said, the book does offer excellent case studies of social assistance and social insurance programs and thus serves as a potential means to develop theoretical arguments.