The 2008 global crisis impacted western societies in a number of ways, especially the way in which we understand the welfare state and social policies. In this context, examining the conceptual basis of social policies is needed. This review essay puts forward questions and data that analyse our difficult times of turbulence and uncertainty by considering two authors and their books. They offer two ways of thinking from different Anglo-Saxon perspectives about the question of social policies. These discussions are transferable to other contexts. That is because the economic crisis has been used to justify the mutation of social policies that had been in effect until less than a decade ago.
