An Englishman once watched his first American football game. He looked intently as the team gathered into a huddle after each play. His American host asked him what he thought of the proceedings. “Not a bad sport,” remarked the visitor, “but they do seem to engage in an excessive number of...

In dem Beitrag wird der Wandel der Staatlichkeit in fünf Politikfeldern analysiert: in der Rechnungslegung, der Bildungspolitik, der Gesundheitspolitik, der Arbeitsmarktpolitik und innerhalb des Gesamtrahmens wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Maßnahmen. Die vergleichende Analyse unterschiedlicher...

In jüngerer Zeit scheint politisches und dabei insbesondere sozialpolitisches Handeln zunehmend von Alternativlosigkeit geprägt. Öffentliche Diskurse transportieren zunehmend vermeintliche, ökonomisch oder gelegentlich auch juristisch begründete Notwendigkeiten und diskutieren immer...

This paper takes a closer look at the supposed mechanisms behind German welfare state resilience, which are given in mainstream institutionalist theories. I focus on reform hurdles associated with the make-up of the German welfare state, both at the macro-level (principles) as well as at the...

Considerable empirical research exists on donations in the US and their determinants, including estimations of the income and price elasticity of giving. By contrast, less is known about the determinants of countries with an extensive welfare state. We address this deficiency by studying the...

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 -...

Using data from the 1997 and 2002 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel and from official statistics, I study whether natives are less supportive of state help for the unemployed in regions where the share of foreigners among the unemployed is high. Unlike previous studies, I use...