Publication

This paper reviews the social policy experiences of 'late industrializers' in Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia, exploring relevant issues for the study of welfare state development. The author presents welfare states in northern Europe, reviews the experience in East Asia and Latin America, and considers the experience of social policy development in sub-Saharan Africa. He explores the relationship between late industrialization and welfare and identifies commonalities across late industrializers, including evidence of institutional learning. He concludes that there are advantages in being a late-developing welfare state and active social policy is a mechanism to promote social and economic development.