Real-typical and ideal-typical methods in comparative social policy

In the past 12 years or so, international welfare state research has witnessed a revival of ideal-typical welfare state theory and methodology in comparative welfare state analysis (Gough et al., 2004; Wood and Gough, 2004, 2006; Aspalter, 2005, 2006a, 2011, 2017; Aspalter et al., 2009; cf. Arts and Gelissen, 2002; Meier Jæger, 2005; Ferragina and Seeleib-Kaiser, 2011), while at the same time the growing number of real-typical welfare state studies (e.g. Ramesh, 2004; Kwon, 2005a, 2005b; Lee and Ku, 2007; Kammer et al., 2012) has continued to leave its mark on the development of international comparative welfare state research.