Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- The arguments in brief -- The structure of the book -- 2 From theories of expansion to theories of retrenchment -- Theories of welfare-state expansion -- Theories of welfare-state retrenchment -- 3 A framework for government choice on retrenchment -- Political parties: their objectives and incentives for retrenchment -- A justification strategy of blame avoidance -- Systems of party competition and their effects on the possibilities of pursuing -- Connection to the labour market: which social-security schemes will be retrenched the most? -- The theoretical argument in brief -- 4 Research strategy and research design -- Denmark and the Netherlands - a most similar systems design -- The choice of social-security schemes -- The choice of time period -- Definition and measurement of retrenchment -- Some hypotheses -- 5 Retrenchments in Denmark and the Netherlands -- Retrenchment in Denmark and the Netherlands -- Actual variation in extent of retrenchment -- The match between the actual and expected variation in retrenchment -- 6 Dutch Politics and welfare-state retrenchment. How party competition produced consensus -- Depillarisation and fumbling response to the oil crises -- The first and second Lubbers governments: No-nonsense policy and an emerging consensus -- The third Lubbers government: WAO affair and the fall of the CDA -- Purple governments: centrist policy without the CDA -- The Dutch case - a general view -- 7 Danish politics and welfare-state retrenchment:The difficulties of a right-wing government and the possibilities of a left-wing government -- Landslide election and fumbling socio-economic policy -- Right-wing governments and the difficulties of welfare-state retrenchment -- 1993-1998: the possibilities of social democratic-led governments.

The Danish case - a general view -- 8 The evidence on balance and some quibbles -- The empirical support for the framework on balance -- Alternative explanations -- Balance -- 9 Party politics matter - summary and implications -- The main findings -- The implications for the retrenchment debate -- The politics of miracles and the dilemmas of European Social Democracy -- Appendix -- Summary -- Notes -- References -- Index.