<< Widely cited, but never read by me, is Gosta Esping-Andersen's The
Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (still in print, ships in 24 hrs
from Amazon).
Doug >>
Gunnar Myrdal has a book called Beyond the Welfare State that I think well of. On the Political side there is Donald Sassoon's One Hundred Years of Socialism. AT home, where I am not right now, I have a pretty good text on the Economics of the Welfare State by some Brit, Neal somebody, I think. --jks