Explores the role of governments in creating and regulating private pensions in the UK and Germany since the 1980s. Private pensions have given rise to a new regulatory state in this area. The contributing authors compare pension regulation and utility regulation, while others analyse the regulatory role of the EU.

'In this pioneering book, Lutz Leisering brings together research on regulation with research on old age security. Its comparative perspective is very helpful in terms of identifying policy alternatives and their implications. Here the focus on Germany and the UK, representing different worlds of public and private pensions, provides particularly interesting contrasts to learn from.'

- Joakim Palme, Director of the Institute for Future Studies and Professor of Political Science at the Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden

'What is the new regulatory state? The authors of this book identify this new type of state by way of comparison: comparing pensions politics to public utilities, comparing the regulatory welfare state to the provider state, and comparing the UK to Germany. A masterful blend of empirical inquiry and conceptual studies.'

Franz-Xaver Kaufmann, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Social Policy, Bielefeld University, Germany