'In this conceptually-sophisticated, richly-informed volume, Cerami and Vanhuysse bring together an exceptional group of scholars to debate path dependence and institutional transformation in CEE welfare states. The authors' impressive analysis of causal factors, including political elites' strategic use of social policy, makes the book an original and important contribution to the comparative welfare state literature.' - Professor Linda ... Read moreJ. Cook, Dept. of Political Science, Brown University, USA 'This edited volume is extraordinarily good. The editors are venturing new grounds in the study welfare state change, by deliberately going beyond the easy temptation of modelling new member welfare states after West European examples. The book provides the best overview to date of welfare state transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. It not only does so by bringing together the leading experts on the subject worldwide. The editors' theoretically well-informed and analytically illuminating and innovative approach to the study of welfare state (self-) transformation, which casts new light on the evolution of domestic and supranational social policy, will guarantee that this landmark book will be cited for many years to come. The comparative scope, historical depth, and timely position, should make the volume required reading for academics, students, and policy makers.' - Anton Hemerijck, Free University of Amsterdam 'An impressive book with a stellar line-up of authors that is theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich as it provides insights into the dynamics of change in Central and Eastern European countries since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The book shows that there are no simple explanations of the transformation of CEECs' social policies, but that a wide range of factors elucidated by different analytic frameworks in particular historical and discursive institutionalism help explain countries' differing trajectories over time, including path-dependent or path-breaking policies, interest-based political coalitions that promote or oppose reform, and national or supranational ideas and discourse that frame those reform efforts.' - Vivien A. Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Boston University Show Less