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In the 1960s the State in its planning came to terms with local interests existing on the margin of its activities. In the 1980s, in the context of a pluralist national landscape, this mutual arrangement came to be replaced by a broad process of socio-territorial development and a widespread recourse to contracts in public aid. In the past decade there has been a tendency for welfare, education and health to be controlled by far-reaching programmes, giving rise to a more selective and prescriptive type of contract. As indicators of an active welfare state that is taking the situation in charge, new ways of striking a balance between protecting the unemployed and facilitating their return to work are appearing, and social expertise is more and more in demand in with the aim of identifying good practice.