Reflection upon the development of, and the future for, welfare states

This chapter makes a summary of what we know about austerity, retrenchment and populism, based especially on the contributions in this book on these topics. Based on the pressure on welfare states in the aftermath of the COVID19 crisis there is further a discussion of how the virusmay have long-term consequences and whether these will be the same across different types of welfare states. This section, by its very nature, becomes more speculative, but there is, however, inspiration from the recent financial crisis and developments in the European economies in particular, which may have an impact on the scope and assessment of how the viruswill impact. © Bent Greve 2021.