Institutions,interests and ideas: explaining social policy change in welfare states incorporating an indigenous population

The last 30 years has seen significant change in social policy regarding indigenous peoples living in advanced welfare states. However, such change has not been uniform even in ‘liberal’ welfare states where the recognitive claims of indigenous peoples have been most widely endorsed by governments. This article proposes a tentative framework for qualitatively analysing these divergences in indigenous social policy cross-nationally, using the example of indigenous capacity building initiatives from New Zealand and Australia to demonstrate its utility. It is argued that, in combining an emphasis on institutions, interests and ideas, the framework may offer a way to answer both traditional welfare questions — do welfare regimes matter? — as well as recent ones emerging in many European countries about the best balance between recognition and redistribution.