ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a more detailed account of the wide array of actors involved in governing social assistance. Social assistance policies in Europe display a number of features that witness an area characterised by fragmentation and authority shared by different political-administrative tiers. The chapter presents a structured inventory of who is involved at what level and in that respect try to capture the relevant political-administrative span in the area with respect to the vertical as well as horizontal division of authority and responsibilities. It describes how measures are coordinated between different actors and how that relates to the degree of targeting and fragmentation in different countries. The chapter addresses the issue of public-private relationships in the area and how they are interrelated with respect to tasks and purposes. Public-private partnerships are agreements rooted in specific political and national contexts and thus there are variations in the degree of adoption of public-private partnerships throughout Europe.
