This text argues that there is more to welfare than simply provision by the state and so the focus of this book is on the welfare society rather than on the welfare state. A multidisciplinary approach is used to examine the design of the pensions systems in nine countries with different institutional welfare mixes. Using a common conceptual framework, the book compares and contrasts the goals and realities of the welfare systems in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, where strong occupational pensions are in operation, with the more modest welfare states in Japan, the UK and the US. Each country case study provides a grounded analysis of the evolution of pension design and traces the impact of the policies on the economic well-being of the aged and the performance of the economy. It offers data on the level of spending of enterprise-based occupational pensions and examines the implications for redistribution resulting from changes in the design of state and occupational pensions.