The large variety of changes detected in the Welfare State (WS) in the last years hints at the difficulty of coming up with a universal definition of reform. These complex changes: 1) invite questioning the idea of institutional persistence or of simple adjustment as it was used so far; 2) call for the avoidance of an all too simple identification of the concept of WS reform with that of retrenchment; 3) suggest that new indicators other than public expenditure should be found to analyze welfare reform; 4) require us to develop reform definitions that are suitable for each policy area and even for each welfare regime. This paper seeks to improve our understanding of Welfare Reform and their present conditions. To that end, it analyzes Welfare Reform from a micro level. In contrast to analyses from a macro o meso level, that seek to pinpoint general changes in welfare regimes or policy sector trajectories, the micro analysis focuses on the observation of particular reforms, which enables the identification of concrete changes and its meticulous analysis. Through a comparative analysis of the reform of unemployment protection in France (PARE 2000) and in Spain (“Decretazo” 2002) this paper tries to answer the following questions: Under which conditions initiatives of Welfare Reform arise? What factors and actors are relevant in the process of reform? What is the impact of these factors and actors in the reform capacity of Welfare Reform observed in different countries and sectors? Some conclusions are reached in particular on the influence of politico-economic institutions, the content of actual welfare policies themselves, public opinion and the reform style pursued in the deliberate transformation of the WS in countries that have followed a bismarckian route.