Introduction: protective legislation - the welfare state’s neglected third pillar

Welfare state research over the past five decades has largely focused on cross-national differences in the provision, character and efficacy of two central pillars of social support: income transfers and social services (social care and other decommodified provisions). This dual-track orientation allowed social policy scholars to identify distinct welfare state models and analyze their impact on inequality, well-being and political dynamics. However, a third and equally critical pillar—protective legislation—has been largely neglected in comparative welfare state research, despite its deep historical roots, ubiquity across social policy domains, and vital role in promoting our welfare. The third pillar encompasses dense networks of laws, acts, codes, rights, standards and regulations, alongside the regulatory, monitoring, and enforcement authorities established to uphold them. Operating within every major social policy domain, these legal measures provide a form of protection that is fundamentally distinct from income transfers or services. As the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies rapidly reshape our social and physical environments—introducing a wide range of anticipated and unforeseen risks—focusing on third-pillar guardrails has never been more urgent. Concurrently, these protective measures have become a primary target of social policy retrenchment, most notably in the United States.