ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the scholarly debate on business involvement, which includes an outline of the extent to which a consensus has emerged on the nature and extent of business influence over social policy development. It presents the main factors that affect the aspects of business influence over social policy development. Business opponents of welfare state expansion may for instance feign support in order to gain access to negotiations and shape the details of policy reform when they realize that this reform has solid parliamentary support. While various historically oriented studies have empirically investigated the role of business in welfare state development, their findings on the views and impact of business groups on welfare reform are often either inconclusive or remain contested. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
