Since the end of the World War II, welfare states had enjoyed golden age for about 30 years before facing stagnation and crises during the 1980s and 1990s. Seeing this, many proponents for convergence including advocates for globalization went wild as if welfare states were facing their end, but in reality they were not. This is because welfare states were empirically proven to be still strong as the 2000s started. As a result, arguments saying welfare states are not declining but are restructuring started to gain credence. In addition, new theories about welfare states supporting these arguments began to draw attention. These theories criticized ‘convergence statement’ saying neo-liberal globalization would bring about reduction of welfare states worldwide, and at the same time, highlighted that in each country there existed various factors preventing reduction of welfare states. That is, this signaled the emergence of welfare states theories that could be categorized as proponents of divergence. Among them, partisan politics approach, institutionalist approach (new institutionalism), the VoC (Varieties of Capitalism) approach are representative theories that support ‘divergence in welfare states.’ Focusing on these three theories, this study will look at the trend in the latest welfare state theories and, through this, will see where the theoretical horizon of study on welfare states has reached. Given that welfare states are ever changing social organisms, it is necessary to see in what conditions these welfare states currently are and what changes in them are expected in the future.

INTRODUCTION
 PRESSURES TO CHANGE AND RESTRUCTURING OF THEWELFARE STATE: CHANGING WELFARE STATES
  Prevalence of Globalization
  Emergence of Post-industrial Society
  Emergence of New Social Risks2)
 RESTRUCTURING AND DIVERGENCE OF THE WELFARESTATE: THEORETICAL APPROACHES
  Partisan Politics Approach
  Institutionalist Approach: The New Institutionalism3)
 The VoC (Varieties of Capitalism) Approach
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES

• Bo-young PARK(Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Department of Social Welfare, Far East University,Eumseong, South Korea.)