ABSTRACT
This chapter draws attention to the Europeanization of social policy and the development
of minimum income protection in a large number of welfare democracies. The empirical
analyses are based on unique institutional and comparative data on benefit levels from
the Social Assistance and Minimum Income Protection Interim Dataset. There is some
evidence of convergence in benefit levels among the European countries in the new
millennium, but there is no clear proof of universal ambitions to fight poverty or of the
existence of a single European social model. There are still welfare frontrunners and
those who lag behind in this regard, not only among industrial welfare democracies
in general but also in Europe.
