The task of an editor is to take one step back and digest the core message that emerges from the various contributions to the volume. The prologue writer should, I suppose, do the same but with the proviso that he, or she, will then take one great leap forward and interpret all the material in a new light. I shall try my best, but please do not expect an earthshattering eureka. My task has unquestionably been eased by the admirable efforts to make the chapters in this volume as homogenous and comparable as possible. I can think of few edited volumes that manage so successfully to furnish the reader with rich detail and holism all at once. And not least, these contributions to our never-ending concern with the welfare state provide interesting reading, indeed.

The core question is straightforward: is the Bismarckian or, if you wish, the Conservative , or Continental welfare model being undone? Where is it heading? The answers I have managed to distill from my reading are less straightforward. In an attempt to arrive at some kind of clarity, I am tempted to conclude the following: one, the glass seems only half full (or half empty if you prefer); two, there is a striking degree of convergence in the Bismarckian nations’ adaptation profiles; three, and rather paradoxically, almost all nations’ reform endeavors look rather incoherent. They are moving in a similar direction, but whereto? Is it just the same old model in new packaging? Are they forging a new, hitherto undefined, model? Are they closing in on either the Liberal or Social Democratic alternative? Or will they emerge as hybrids? In order to assess where the Bismarckian model is heading we obviously also need to keep in mind that its regime-competitors are in the midst of transformation, too.

What above all else strikes the reader is how similar the sequencing and overall thrust of nations’ adaptation has been over the past decades. One might be led to believe that an invisible coordinating hand reigned supreme. To an extent, as many chapters emphasize, the Maastricht accords, EMU and the common currency no doubt set the stage in terms of imposing identical constraints as well as signaling the urgency of financial reform.