The paper redresses an imbalance in the study of the welfare state: the comparative neglect of health care programmes as sources of evidence about the changing politics of the welfare state. It explains why health care should be central to our understanding of the welfare state; summarises the...

To what extent there was outstanding change or continuity in Germany and to what extent various programmes stand out as winners or losers of the era Kohl can only be determined by looking at longitudinal data of programme development and at comparative data the put the German Changes into...