The welfare of the people is an ancient political norm, much older than citizenship and civic rights. Modern social rights did not, as a rule, develop as citizens' rights, but as rights of classes and of other social categories. Despite the widespread politics of anti-welfare, social welfare has grown in various political contexts and forms. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, social policy became the focus of a vast body of international, comparative research in sociology and political science. The overall trajectory of this still-expanding scholarly enterprise may be outlined in the shape of three generations of investigation, each with a characteristic empirical focus and geopolitical orientation, and set in a specific socio-historical context.