Interests and choice in the 'not quite so new' politics of welfare

A growing body of literature, broadly referred to as the 'new politics of t he welfare state', seeks to explain the constellation of pressures that con dition how affluent societies are restructuring their broadly popular and d eeply entrenched welfare states. Yet, while greatly increasing our awarenes s of the processes of retrenchment and, to a lesser extent, reformulation, the new politics remains overly de-politicised. With the imperatives of pos tindustrial adjustment and globalisation impelling leaders to restructure t heir costly social programmes and watchful electorates, entrenched interest s and sticky institutions obliging them to practise modesty, welfare state restructuring has been reduced to a collision between structural necessitie s and institutional and political constraints. This 'sandwiching' of politi cal leadership circumvents the critical role political agency can play in c rafting welfare reform.