Chapter 1 (by Greve) sets the scene for the book by examining the various definitions of the concepts of evaluation and best evidence and looks at the different models involved. He then presents an overview of the content of the book, which is divided into three parts: I: What Evaluation Is and Examples of Methods, focusing on the definition of evaluation and the different methods; II: Evaluation and Policy, with a focus on evaluation and policy-making; and Part III: Evaluation of Concrete Social Policy Areas, which looks at the present state of the art within different central welfare policies. The chapter ends with a discussion on the book’s limitations.

This chapter sets the scene for the book, including the reasons for the choice of concepts and how and why the link between these are important elements in order to understand societal development in welfare states. It also argues that the presentation and discussion of the development in a variety of different welfare states regimes can be important in order to understand the impact of ideas, ideologies and variations in policies and decisions in a range of countries. Furthermore, that the analysis of countries and groups of countries gives one kind of information, but analysis across a number of different sub-sections of the welfare states aims at making it possible to understand in a broader way why there might have been austerity/retrenchment in certain parts of the welfare states, but not necessarily in others. This also includes why populism can have had an impact in certain social policy areas, although not in all of them, as some welfare areas also have, from time to time, strong support from populist parties. Lastly, there is a short overview of the individual chapters.