Review of Gullen A. & Leon M. (2011) "The Spanish Welfare State in European Context", Aldershot, Ashgate, 2011, 338pp., ISBN 978 140 940 2930, £60.00 (hbk)

The volume is one of the first products of the recently constituted ESPAnet-Spain, a research venture that will surely add to our knowledge of the Spanish welfare state. The aim of the book is to describe and analyse the evolution of Spanish social policies, in the European context, from the democratic transition to the present.This book has many merits. First, it is clear that the editors have put considerable effort into encouraging contributors to use a similar analytical framework. Second, the volume is successful not only in providing a complete portrait of the Spanish welfare, but also in shedding light on the still unresolved inconsistencies between policies followed in different areas. Third, the book makes an essential contribution to our understanding of the so-called Southern European welfare regime. Finally, there is little doubt that this book comes at the perfect time. The book also has some limitations. First, most of the studies are essentially descriptive, and the reader sometimes misses an explanation for the phenomena discussed. Second, and most importantly, many of the contributions concentrate solely on the input factors while ignoring any evaluation of the Spanish welfare from the point of view of its outcomes. Finally, from the perspective of the international readership of the book, a chapter devoted to providing a description of the social and economic conditions of the different Autonomous Communities seems an important omission.