This paper describes welfare state transformation in OECD countries since the 1970s against the background of the post-war settlement. Relying on quantitative macro-data and qualitative information from the literature, we show that welfare states have converged, especially regarding various...

Der Band versammelt die Dokumentation der 26. Bremer Universitäts-Gespräche. Inhalt: Armingeon, Klaus: Sozialpolitik in den Zeiten von permanenter Austerität. - Eichhorst, Werner: Ist der deutsche Arbeitsmarkt stärker fragmentiert als früher? - Schäfer, Armin: Die Rückkehr alter...

The question whether and how warfare has influenced the development of advanced Western welfare states is contested. So far, scholarly work either focused on the trade-off between military and social spending or on case studies of individual countries. What is missing, however, is a systematic...

We examine whether a fundamental change in the core dimension of modern 20th century statehood, the welfare state, has become evident in response to changed exogenous and endogenous challenges. By combining quantitative and qualitative approaches we take stock of social policy development in...

For many years, comparative welfare state research has been afflicted with a sort of methodological nationalism in the sense that countries were treated as independent units. In line with the recent "spatial turn" in comparative public policy studies, this paper examines with regard to three...