The paper discusses the possible implications of the challenges facing the 'European Social Model' (ESM) caused by the European Monetary Union (EMU) and the enlargement of the EU to include central and eastern European countries. The strains produced by the two challenges on the European welfare...

While the issue of corporate social responsibility has been studied in the social sciences for many years, it has become more critical as financial markets' influence on companies has grown. Pressure on corporations to increase shareholder value seems to leave no room for firms to make decisions...

This paper analyzes 'globalization' as the interplay between domestic and 'foreign' economic agents that seek to break up nationally contained and/or institutionally constrained markets with the aim of altering distributive outcomes in their favor. I take as my exemplary cases the recent opening...

In der Politikwissenschaft gibt es drei verschiedene Thesen zum Zusammenhang von Globalisierung und Wohlfahrtsstaat. Die erste behauptet, die Globalisierung sei schuld an der chronischen Krise des Wohlfahrtsstaates. Der Prozess der außenwirtschaftlichen Öffnung und internationalen Integration...

Trust is considered to be a precondition for individual action, cooperative relationships and societal order. In the social sciences, researchers have tried to explain trust by identifying the 'good reasons' for trust that provide the basis for trusting. This paper argues that although trust has...

For over 100 years, the German company network was a major feature of organized corporate governance in Germany. This paper uses network visualization techniques and qualitative-historical analysis to discuss the structure, origins and development of this network and to analyze the reasons for...

In parliamentary systems, parties compete for votes and offices in the electoral arena but in many systems they also cooperate in the legislative arena. This paper examines the question of whether the government status of parties affects their legislative behaviour and, hence, policy outcomes....