European social policy changed with the evolution of European and global capitalism, the scope and shape of European-level international institutions, the size and heterogeneity of "Europe" as a polity, and the politics of the European national welfare state. The paper outlines the long-term...

The paper explores possible frontiers of historical-institutionalist analysis. It argues three points: that progress will require a return from a static to a dynamic perspective in which change is no longer a special case but a universal condition of any social order; that theory must not a...

The progress of markets erodes traditional relations of social solidarity that are essential for the stability and performance of societies. As markets advance, pressures build on the state to replace informal social obligations with formal ones. Regulation may fail, however, which tends to give...

Das Papier ist die erweiterte Fassung eines Beitrags zu einer Ringvorlesung über „Wissenschaftliche Politikberatung an der Universität Göttingen im Sommersemester 2009. Es untersucht, was speziell die Sozialwissenschaften zur Beratung der Politik beitragen können. Nomothetische Theorien,...

Das Papier, vorgetragen beim Institutstag 2008 des Max-Planck-Instituts für Gesellschaftsforschung, fragt nach dem Zusammenhang sozialwissenschaftlicher Theorieentwicklung und dem Wandel der politisch-ökonomischen Verhältnisse. Zentrale These ist, dass sozialwissenschaftliche Theorien sich...

The paper was presented as a keynote lecture at the 10th anniversary of the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) in April 2008. It surveys the trajectory of scholarly work on labor after 1945, from its initial emphasis on rights of industrial and social citizenship to its...

An irreversibly more competitive economy forces a rethinking of European concepts of social solidarity, away from redistribution to policies enabling individuals, regions and countries to participate successfully in an international market. Institutionally this is reflected in the continuing...

The paper reviews the origins of the comparative study of capitalism and of the diverse approaches applied to it in contemporary political economy. It distinguishes four models accounting for differences in the institutional make-up of national capitalist economies, which it refers to as the...