This major text provides a comprehensive and straightforward introduction to the theoretical underpinnings of social policy. Written in an engaging style with a user-friendly structure, it offers students a clear guide to crucial debates and key concepts within social policy today. Welfare Theory draws upon politics, sociology and philosophy to analyse the history and meaning of concepts such as: equality, liberty, citizenship, the state, power, poverty and human nature. The text reviews the core ideologies of welfare, from the radical Right to Marxism, as well as other perspectives based on divisions of gender, ethnicity, disability, age and sexuality. It also outlines recent innovations in welfare theory including: post-industrialism, post-Fordism, globalisation, postmodernism, communitarianism, environmentalism, risk society, new technologies and the body. This important text is essential introductory reading for all Social Policy undergraduates and critical reading for all those who wish to understand what is at stake in the welfare policies of the 21st century.