This volume addresses issues of justice and legitimacy in the context of welfare state transformation. Leading international experts including Knut Halvorsen, Robert Y. Shapiro, Stefan Svallfors and Wim van Oorschot, demonstrate that the Western welfare state is not at risk of losing support or encountering fundamental opposition, yet does face serious challenges such as growing social and ethnic diversity, new social risks, fiscal constraints and contested notions of justice. The book is focused on four main aspects: attitude formation in cross-national perspective; the just distribution of burdens and benefits; political factors mediating the effects of social attitudes on public policy; and, challenges to the welfare state stemming from immigration and ethnic diversity. The volume contributes to the growing body of literature which takes up the issue of the public standing of the welfare state from a comparative perspective.