The third Social Architecture Paper has been provided by Bruno Palier, a permanent Research Fellow of the Centre national de recherche scientifique [CNRS] in France and a researcher at Centre d'Étude de la Vie Politique Française [CEVIPOF] of the Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, Paris. By examining both the national level and that of the European Union, Palier provides a two-level analysis of the patterns of challenge and change in the many systems of social protection in Europe. He also considers in detail the politics of reform, including the strategies used within countries and those deployed within the institutions of the European Union so as to ensure a modernization of the European Social Model.