This paper uses the findings of a very recent major international research collaboration on the impact of federal arrangements on the development of the welfare state to explore the possibilities of progress beyond Europe's present diversity of nation-state welfare standards. These findings -...

The non-economic preconditions of globalization -- Welfare state mercantilism -- Defensive globalization in the welfare state : foreign trade policy and social policy in the USA -- Two worlds of welfare democracy : global capitalism and social policy reform in Germany and the USA -- The welfare...