The German Welfare State : Dimensions - Innovations - Comparisions

Abstract

German Policy Studies / Politikfeldanalyse Vol. 1/2002

This research paper wants to present comparative studies of specific areas or problems of the welfare-state. It deals with the question: do something like coherent national types à la Esping-Andersen still exist, and must Germany always be classified as a conservative, corporative type, or should politically and theoretically relevant differences and similarities be examined along policy lines? This question also applies to a specific level of policy on which a study concentrates. Most contributions in this issue follow qualitative methods instead of a quantitative analysis of aggregate data. The second theme is the broad concept of the welfare-state. This means that not only the central aspects of the welfare-state will be examined, like social insurance, additional areas like social assistance, labour-market policy, but also socio-political activities on the local level. Six contributions try to develop these conceptual and methodological ideas.