The Americanization of British welfare: a case study of policy transfer.

The Labour Government came to power in Britain in 1997 on a platform to reform welfare that owed a great deal to the social policy views of the Clinton administration. In the subsequent months major reforms were implemented and more announced. Yet by July 1998 the key politicians entrusted with reform either had been sacked or had resigned. This article compares and contrasts welfare policy in Britain and the United States and discusses Labour's welfare reforms, then considers whether the current impasse is due to the failure of U.S. policies to travel well.