Throughout the 21st century, many welfare states have expanded family policies. However, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred significant, though varied, adjustments in family benefits across countries. This study conducts a qualitative comparative policy analysis of ten high-income countries, selected on the basis welfare regime theory, to examine how family policy changed during the COVID-19 crisis and whether these changes marked the beginning of new policy paths. The analysis shows that most institutional responses for families with children were incremental and temporary in nature, serving to reinforce rather than overhaul existing welfare systems. These results align with historical institutionalist theory and its emphasis on path dependence. Despite some convergence in emergency measures, long-standing differences in areas such as childcare availability and benefit generosity persist across the studies welfare state regimes. While the pandemic acted as a catalyst for certain policy innovations, it did not fundamentally disrupt the institutional logic underpinning family policy.

This article addresses a critical research gap by investigating the link between social polarization and contemporary societal challenges, such as poverty and crime. Despite the existence of numerous studies describing the effects of income disparity, the role of social stratification in inducing delinquency and poorness in transitional economies has not received sufficient consideration. The author conducts an analysis of income inequality metrics (IIMs) across Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations, examining dependencies that provide a precise depiction of the correlation between socioeconomic disparity and urgent society’s problems. The study disclosed that the lowest proportion of the impoverished was observed in countries with a minimal income disparity, such as Belarus and Kazakhstan; in contrast, nations that exhibit a significant degree of income differentiation, such as Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Armenia, demonstrate the highest proportion of the impoverished. Following a linear regression approach, the study revealed a strong positive correlation between IIMs and crime rate. By shedding light on these dependencies, the article provides fresh insights into the dynamic relationship between major social problems in the CIS countries.

Self-rated health (SRH) is widely used as an indicator of health in population studies, and there has been an increased interest in cross-national variations. Numerous studies have found an association between SRH and health, including whether there are interactional effects at both the micro and the macro levels. This article compares the effect of social meetings on SRH across different welfare regimes in Europe. We discuss whether differences in welfare design may explain some of the variations in the impact of social meetings on SRH. We observe regime-specific patterns and identify cross-national variations. One main finding is that the effect of social meetings on SRH is stronger in all other welfare regimes compared to the social-democratic regime. Examining the pattern of association between SRH and social meetings across welfare regimes offers valuable insight into whether welfare systems may moderate potential health risks stemming from fewer social meetings.

Welfare regime theory remains a central framework in social policy literature, valued for its theoretical insights and policy relevance. However, as this framework is increasingly applied to countries in the Global South, scholars have questioned whether all contexts fit neatly into the established welfare regime types. Recent contributions suggest adopting a hybrid lens, which recognizes that welfare arrangements often vary within the same country, with different populations experiencing distinct forms of social protection. This study contributes to this evolving debate by exploring the development of Iraq’s welfare system and proposing a hybrid classification within the welfare regime framework. We argue that Iraq functions as a hybrid welfare regime, where access to welfare and social protection is unevenly distributed across different segments of society. In doing so, the study extends welfare regime theory by classifying Iraq as a case of hybrid welfare regime and highlights the importance of hybrid welfare models for understanding welfare systems in the Global South.

This article provides new exploratory information on child support amounts expected for non-resident fathers of children living with low-income, unemployed mothers in Colombia, Finland, Peru, the United States, and Uruguay. Using vignette data obtained through extensive interviews with judicial and social service personnel and child support experts, we investigated whether child support is expected and its amount when single mothers are unemployed, considering four different levels of earnings for fathers. In all countries but Finland, child support is expected when the father has only temporary employment. For the lowest income fathers, child support expectations in Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay are similar or higher than the United States and higher in Finland. In all countries except Colombia, child support expectations are higher when father’s income is higher. We discuss implications for policy and future research.

Implementation arrangements are increasingly recognized as a decisive factor in the success of contemporary welfare policies, particularly those that combine income support with activation requirements. This paper examines the Italian case of minimum income schemes - the Reddito di Inclusione and the Reddito di Cittadinanza - to explore how local implementation arrangements shape one of their core objectives: reintegrating beneficiaries into the labour market. Drawing on an original dataset that integrates administrative data with a unique INAPP survey of local institutions, we operationalize “implementation arrangements” along three dimensions: institutional capacity, alignment between organizational missions and policy goals, and the quality of institutional cooperation within a multilevel governance framework. Using regression models at the municipal level, we find that implementation strength matters, but horizontal cooperation and effective communication between Public Employment Services (PES) and Local Social Planning Institutions (LSPIs) emerge as the strongest predictors of successful outcomes. While PES performance is central due to their policy mandate, LSPIs’ ability to foster integrated networks also contributes positively when well-coordinated. These findings highlight that policy success depends less on formal design than on the quality of local governance and institutional complementarities. The results provide new evidence for the literature on implementation, underscoring the importance of horizontal multilevel governance in active social policies.

This article presents an analytical framework for studying implementation failure in minimum income programs targeted against poverty and applies it to a case study focused on the recent introduction in Spain of the first national minimum income programme, the Minimum Living Income (MLI). The framework combines two criteria (the type of agent potentially triggering failure, and the type of administrative challenge) to produce four types of implementation problems in targeted minimum income schemes: identification failure, administrative incapacity, nontake-up, and overpayments. We apply this framework in the case of MLI by conducting an exhaustive review of empirical research on its implementation problems. This evidence suggests that the special political circumstances in which the MLI was approved, some features of its design, and its insertion into a complex institutional landscape of regional minimum incomes, explain part of these problems. We conclude with some final remarks and recommendations.

While most Conditional Cash Transfer programs in Latin America expanded from rural to national coverage, Peru’s Juntos program maintained a strict rural focus for 15 years, systematically excluding poor urban households. This article examines the Peruvian paradox: why, despite regional trends and internal efforts to broaden coverage, Juntos remained territorially constrained. Using process tracing and semi-structured interviews with policymakers, senior bureaucrats, former congress members, and policy experts, the study identifies two institutional legacies rooted in the neoliberal reforms of the Fujimori era. First, the institutional consolidation of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) as a powerful veto player with control over public spending; and second, the diffusion of an ideational framework centered on fiscal austerity, efficiency, and aversion to clientelism. These legacies gave rise to two policy locks, a persistent rural bias and a regime of horizontal and fiscal control, that have limited the program’s adaptability to shifting poverty dynamics and urban demands.

The complex interconnection between socioeconomic disadvantage and drug use disorders has raised global interest in community-based approaches to substance abuse prevention and treatment. This article analyses the origins, implementation, and opportunities for diffusion in Latin America of an Argentine programme that promotes access to treatment through partnerships between the national drug policy agency and geographically dispersed care and support facilities managed by civil society organizations. It argues that severe socioeconomic crisis, rising drug use, and inadequate government response, at the turn of the century, created the conditions for social innovation in substance abuse treatment by civil society. Central aspects of the programme are ensuring accessibility through territorially based facilities and proactive outreach; attending multidimensional needs through the creation of local intersectoral support networks; and addressing addiction by building relationships. Remaining challenges include the need to improve coordination between national and subnational governments and develop a robust monitoring and evaluation system.

Over the years, cultural and linguistic diversity in schools across Europe has significantly increased due to migration and refugee flows. In response, international organizations, such as the Council of Europe and the European Commission, advocate intercultural education as both an educational strategy and a social policy tool to foster inclusion, address inequality, and build cohesive societies. This study contributes to the intercultural education literature by addressing an underexplored area: the process of translating intercultural policies into school practices. Using Street-Level Bureaucracy theory and qualitative research in Trento, Italy, it highlights the mechanisms and challenges shaping teachers’ practices and the extent of the policy–practice gap. Furthermore, the research also contributes to the Street-Level Bureaucracy theory. It shows that teachers can act as innovators in the policy implementation process. By engaging civil society members, notably students and members of migrant communities, as co-implementers, teachers reshape policy ecosystems through participatory and bottom-up approaches.

Since its inception in 2009, Argentina’s Universal Child Allowance (AUH) has become the country’s most comprehensive social protection policy for children, emphasising standardisation and objectivity. However, its implementation occurs in contexts of poverty and inequality, leading to uneven outcomes across communities. This study examines how street-level bureaucrats adapt large-scale policies like the AUH to local contexts marked by deep social disparities. Although the AUH is designed for standardized and automated implementation, frontline workers play a critical role in adjusting the policy to specific territorial needs. These bureaucrats employ informal strategies and policy improvisation to mitigate institutional weaknesses and address gaps in the AUH’s rigid framework. By analysing the interplay between the policy’s institutional design, frontline workers, and adaptations, this study sheds light on how street-level bureaucracies at multiple levels enable these workers to navigate local challenges and partially compensate for broader institutional fragility.

This article posits that the multi-level governance literature can benefit from administrative burden theory if scholars are interested in understanding under which conditions policy implementation fails. To support this argument, we build on these two bodies of research to examine how implicit welfare rescaling – where the central government expands its role in a previously devolved policy – may increase administrative burdens for claimants, and to what extent local welfare systems can help to mitigate these burdens despite lacking coordination. To address these research aims, we assess the implementation of the “Ingreso Mínimo Vital,” a national minimum income scheme introduced in Spain within a fragmented regional system. Qualitative fieldwork with frontline professionals and policy experts shows that welfare rescaling heightened claimants’ administrative burdens due to inter-institutional misfit among governance levels. This imposed substantial learning, compliance, and psychological costs on claimants, making frontline professionals essential for guiding them through these challenges.