The aim of this mini-symposium is to identify different national growth strategies, i.e. the general common orientation given to economic policies (and social protection reforms) in a specific country, in order to recover growth and create jobs in a period of deindustrialization (since the late 1970s). We assume that, when analysing the interaction between growth strategies and welfare state reforms, we can identify distinct patterns that are influenced by national production regimes and national social policy regimes. The dominant social institutional arrangements of a country interact with its production regime, leading to specific types of economic specialization. Careful institutional analysis reveals that even between countries sharing similar production and welfare regimes, national economic strategies differ. In order to understand these dynamics, we focus on the way various economic and social actors have tried to establish a specific compromise around their different economic and social interests.