Abstract: By way of a critical analysis of welfare reform initiatives in Massachusetts, the paper explores the complex interplay between federal‐ and state‐level factors in welfare policy discourse and practice. I argue that, despite being represented as both home‐grown and innovative, the recent package of reforms in Massachusetts is neither. Rather, it is the outcome of a self‐inflicted hollowing out of the nation‐state, coupled with a dramatic increase in federally orchestrated policy transfers between states, themselves anxious to appear active in the welfare reform process. The apparent consensus on work‐based welfare reform is more a symptom of this structural context than it is an outcome of ideas that work at the local level. As a result, the postwelfare settlement in Massachusetts is an unstable one.