ABSTRACT
This chapter describes policy-makers relied on a Keynesian policy paradigm to identify the problems and solutions they thought would work and then how a new neoliberal policy paradigm emerged. In some countries, neoliberal policy-makers shrank the welfare state, while in others they did not. The chapter suggests that the liberal welfare states embraced neoliberalism readily, although in some cases quite differently, while conservative welfare states like France proved less susceptible to neoliberal ideas. It considers a version of Esping-Andersen's typology of 'welfare states' to chart the impact of neoliberalism on different welfare states found in Britain, the US, Australia and France. The welfare state was dismantled or retrenched as governments cut social spending and restructured welfare programs. The fact that young people constitute a significant part of the precariat is a direct effect of the neoliberal makeover of the 'welfare state'.
