Social policy debates often get lost in highly technical discussions and in the squabbles of day-to-day politics. This book engages at an introductory level with a tradition of thought that offers an alternative approach. It reviews the concepts of welfare, equality, liberty and citizenship, key political and sociological themes, old and new welfare ideologies, as well as recent theoretical developments including globalization, postmodernism and risk society. It should be of interest to social policy undergraduates and to those politics, sociology and philosophy undergraduates who are studying the welfare state.