Since the mid-1970s, European states have been reassessing the welfare state and reconfiguring their relationships with each other. The inter- linkages between these phenomena, however, have never been comprehensively examined. This innovative volume situates the expansion and ongoing development of the welfare state within the framework of territorial politics. The book includes country studies on the UK, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Germany, France, the Nordic countries and Canada, addressing key questions such as: *Did the expansion of state welfare provide a basis for national unity by reinforcing attachment to the national state or was a shared national identity and solidarity a necessary condition underpinning and legitimizing welfare expansion? *Has the retreat from state welfare weakened state national identity and reinforced support for greater sub-state autonomy or has the reassertion of regional identity and sub-state autonomy undermined welfare states by weakening the sense of national solidarity? *How are democratic accountability and territorial subsidiarity, pillars in the process of Europeanization, taken into account at both national and regional levels of welfare provision? *Can the European Union draw upon its developing role in social policy to generate a sense of belonging and attachment to the European 'community'? In addition to its empirical investigation, The Territorial Politics of Welfare includes an examination of the role of the European Union in social policy development. It will interest scholars of social policy, territorial politics and European studies.