The great transformation

Abstract

Over the past quarter century or so there has been, in Peter Hall’s formulation (Hall, 1993), a paradigm shift in macro-economic policy making: a movement from a Keynesian mode of policy making towards one based on monetary theory. The latter was open to a variety of interpretations and has been modified in practice. However, there was clearly a transformation in the way we think about economic policy making. Is the same true of social policy? Has there been an equivalent paradigm shift in the way we think about social policy? The two books under review provide an opportunity for addressing this question.