Europe and the Politics of Capabilities. Edited by Robert Salais and Robert Villeneuve. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 328p. $90.

This innovative edited collection seeks to help shape the academic and policy debate over the future of the welfare state in Europe by introducing and advocating Amartya Sen's “capabilities approach.” Since the editors' primary objective is to promote a particular set of policies, there is little effort by contributors to explain policy variation across European Union member states or over time, which is the collection's main weakness. Rather, this distinguished group of academics and practitioners evaluates European economic development policies and prescribes a course of action consistent with the capability approach.