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Giuliano Bonoli (2013), The Origins of Active Social Policy: Labour Market and Childcare Policies in a Comparative Perspective . Oxford : Oxford University Press . £60.00, pp. 240, hbk.
Social scientists interested in active social policies will no doubt be familiar with the work of Giuliano Bonoli. Bonoli is one of the most productive scholars in this social policy domain and, more importantly, has studied active social policies from various disciplinary perspectives, including social policy, public administration and political science. In his book The Origins of Active Social Policy: Labour Market and Childcare in a Comparative Perspective, the political science perspective is dominant. In this book, Bonoli sets himself the task to explain the shift from passive to active welfare states during the last decades. More specifically, three puzzles are distinguished: (1) the development of a new set of social policies in times of budgetary pressures; (2) the fact that these policies have been introduced in countries irrespective of their welfare regime background; although, and this constitutes the final puzzle, (3) Southern European countries have embraced the new active social policy paradigm less eagerly than most other countries.
In addressing these puzzles, the book uses a clear approach which makes the book very accessible. It starts with defining active social policies, followed by a chapter presenting data substantiating the starting point of the book, namely that welfare states have become more active. One of the interesting features of the book is that it pays attention to active labour market policies as well as childcare policies...