| Summary/Abstract |
Twenty years on, Paul Pierson’s book Dismantling the Welfare State has earned the stature of a classic text in our discipline. In rereading the book recently, I was struck by how innovative it was for its time, starting with its substantive contribution: when it was written, scholars were still trying to make sense of the creation of the welfare state, never mind eff orts to dismantle it. Along comes Pierson, examining what were then very recent political events by applying the analytical framework of historical institutionalism (Pierson 1994 ). This was truly novel when the book was published and remains a cuttingedge approach: we are still learning how analytical lenses for probing political change and development can help us to understand not only past but contemporary politics as well.
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