ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on new elements in the way welfare states are organised, managed and steered. Decentralisation, devolution, but also recentralisation and delegation of power, have entered the way welfare states are developing. The use of different types of governance can vary across the welfare states, and also within different parts of the welfare state’s delivery, including a difference varying from service to income transfers. A critique in welfare states has been the development in bureaucracy and central rules to steer and manage the development, including how those financing the welfare state can be sure to get value for money. Non-profit agencies have taken over functions previously undertaken directly by public workers, and have assumed program responsibilities in new areas where government workers have never performed. Welfare states are steered, managed and under constant change. New types of steering and managing the welfare state are constantly developing.
