Social welfare policies, services, and institutions have been established for a variety of reasons. Most social welfare resources have been employed to aid the most marginalised members of society. In addition to addressing and preventing social problems such as poverty and exclusion, social welfare can be a tool for the distribution of resources. This edited book aims to stimulate critical debates on the provisions and impacts of social welfare in different sectors. Nowadays, social welfare is associated with a wide variety of areas that extend beyond the social sphere, and it is a crucial component of a society's political and economic changes. Economically, the scope and quality of social welfare influence economic efficiency, worker productivity, and government spending. Politically, the extent and availability of social benefits have affected election results, political parties’ agendas, and the sustainability of political regime types. In concrete terms, the provision of social services has been important for the maintenance of political regimes (e.g., dictators' stick and carrot strategy), the consolidation of elite groups in positions of power (e.g., state capture), the adoption of transformative economic policies of once poor economies (e.g., Southeast Asian developmental states), and the restructuring and organisation of capital (e.g., liberalism). Taking these broad understandings of welfare development into account, the book contains chapters that examine programmatic, structural, and systemic aspects of social welfare provision. The book focuses on global and local social welfare policies associated with the following themes: social welfare policies (inputs, impact, diffusion), decentralised social welfare provision, power relations in social welfare provision, policy innovation, social and economic exclusion, and welfare dependency. Most of the chapters center the analysis on social welfare provision and their impact. Considering the provision of services, elements of policy elaboration, quality of institutions, and outputs for welfare provision will be analysed. As for the impact of social welfare, the book approaches this issue contemplating the redistribution effects of social welfare. With these goals in mind, the following questions are pertinent to the book. How has social assistance altered over the last several decades? What are the patterns in the evolution of social welfare services? What are the most current social welfare innovations, and how do they affect service delivery? How effective is welfare provision in the reduction of inequality? When and how does social welfare produce welfare dependency? Which social welfare policies and services have helped to reduce inequality? What factors influence the quality of social welfare services? Why has the expansion and retraction of social welfare become important for political conflicts in certain modern democracies? Assuming that social welfare policies, services, and institutions are configured differently according to different sectors and national settings, the book welcomes a wide range of analyses focused on policy and program developments in specific countries or across countries as well as on single or multiple policy areas. Also, the book includes chapters on the historical institutional evolution of social welfare policies and programs, considering that social welfare systems developed into different historical forms. Not limited to qualitative assessments, quantitative analyses are welcome, particularly on the impact of social policies and programs.