Different academic and political analysts present contradictory perspectives as to the conditions required for the consolidation of the welfare state in 21st-century Europe—when the social pacts that forged the welfare state in the wake of the industrial revolution can no longer be taken for granted.

Welfare states themselves contain contradictions. In the same regimes coexist solidarity versus responsibility, collectivism versus individualisation and redistribution versus control. Are they about income distribution and protection or rigid procedures for the management of social risks? Is their goal the defence of individuals against situations of poverty and vulnerability or the imposition of social inclusion in a manner that does not respect the uniqueness of individuals and their capabilities?

Different social policies are framed too by diverse ideologies. Regulatory perspectives cohabit with emancipatory discourses. Conservative judgements embrace ‘flexibility’ measures.

This ambivalence is suggestive of a crisis in the European welfare state. But if this is so it is normative rather than structural: whether states privilege the ‘social’ or the ‘economic’ in welfare measures is a matter of political decision.