Afterword: Rethinking the Nation State

The move towards marketization in old-age security is not just the outcome of ‘neoliberal’ thinking, but reflects wider changes in society during the post-war decades. This includes cultural changes like individualization and consumerism, economic prosperity spreading to broader sections of society, and new social problems, particularly the ageing of the population. The growing regulatory activity of the state is not just a response to marketization, but also to those wider socioeconomic and cultural changes. Levy (2006, pp. 13–22) lists a similar range of ‘sources of contemporary state activism’ to counter claims that the (nation) state is retreating. Most of the contributions to this book focus on the national level of politics, confirming the activism of nation states highlighted by Levy. But in an age of Europeanization and globalization, supra- and transnational forces gain weight. Three contributors to this book enquire into the role of the European Union: Davy, Haverland, and Grande, the latter investigating the EU as part of a multi-level regulatory regime in public utilities.