TONY FITZPATRICK is Reader at the School of Sociology and Social Policy, the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the co-editor of the journal Policy & Politics (The Policy Press) and was the principal editor of the three-volume International Encyclopaedia of Social Policy (Routledge 2006).
Review of the first edition: ...in seeking to synthesise a very wide range of social and political thought into a body of 'welfare theory' and present it in a manner which is accessible to undergraduate students, Fitzpatrick has set himself (or been set) a fairly daunting task. It is a measure of his success, as well as a reflection of his erudition and evident enthusiasm for the subject, that he has managed to produce a text which is readable, accessible and will provide students with a good map of the theoretical terrain on the subject for some time to come. - Iain Ferguson, University of Stirling, Social Policy