In this paper, the authors look at trends in social security reform activity in all of the Nordic countries with the exception of Iceland. They shall first briefly compare the status of the welfare state around 1990 with that of 1997; to be followed by an account of the economic and political...

The paper examines the gender relations upsheld by the Italian welfare state, and points out that the reforms of cash transfer programs, which took place after 1992, reinforce the "male -breadwinner/female -housekeeper" model.

This paper examines some of the recent changes in the Canadian health care system and describes some of the market incentives in the helath care sector. In contrast to European health care systems in transition, the extent and potential for market incentives is still very limited in the Canadian...

The question as to whether or not 'gender matters' in the issue of the delivery of care may seem a very odd one, given the enormous literature that has developed within a number of social science disciplines that takes gender relations as the primary perspective in the analysis of care. However,...

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...

In this paper the author tries to summarize a sociological view on citizenship moving from idea presented by t.H. Marshall, whose analysis has become the starting point of much of the sociological discussion on citizenship.

This paper develops an analytical framework for the systematic comparative analysis of equity approaches in long-term care policies. Equity is at the core of welfare state objectives, but there is a lack of systematic conceptualisation in many areas of social policy. This is particularly true...