ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the pressures leading to state retreat programmes as well as the nature of those programmes. Focusing exclusively on the functional, rather than the territorial, level it reveals that the reshaping of the state in Western Europe involves different policies across Europe and conflicting tendencies in the impact of the various reform programmes. Economic crisis, ideological commitment, domestic political change, internationalisation, Europeanisation and technological pressures have fed one another in dynamic and complex fashion. Several strands of the technological revolution are worth highlighting, since they clearly illustrate how it has contributed to the process of state redefinition. The general picture of state retreat may mask a partial, nationally differentiated, limited reality with perverse displacement effects and unintended consequences leading to renewed state activity. New issues, such as mass unemployment, the environment, gender equality, protection of minority rights, immigration, rising crime rates, have required more pro-active states–at domestic, and often at European and international levels.
