The Dual Transformation Of The German Welfare State

by Bleses, Peter; Seeleib-Kaiser, Martin

• ISBN13: 9781403917843
• ISBN10: 1403917841
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-27
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book breaks new intellectual ground in the analysis of the German welfare state. Peter Bleses and Martin Seeleib-Kaiser argue that we are witnessing a dual transformation of the welfare state, which is caused by the emergence of new dominating interpretative patterns. Increasingly, the state reduces its social policy commitments towards securing the achieved living standard of former wage earners, which in the past had been the key normative principle of social policy in Germany, while at the same time public support and services for families are expanded.

Author Biography

Peter Bleses is Research Fellow in the Law Department at the University of Oldenburg.

Martin Seeleib-Kaiser is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Policy Research, Bremen University.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	vii
List of Figures	viii
Preface	ix
List of Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
Part I The Policy Dimension
1. Evaluating Policy Change: Some Theoretical and Methodological Remarks	9	(5)
2. Historical, Normative and Institutional Foundations of the German Welfare State in the Golden Post-World War II Era	14	(15)
2.1 Historical background	14	(3)
2.2 Norms and institutions	17	(10)
2.3 Summarising the social policy concept	27	(2)
3. Socio-economic Developments since the Mid-1970's	29	(11)
3.1 Economic discontinuities and the (preliminary) end of full employment	29	(4)
3.2 The standard employment relationship on the retreat	33	(3)
3.3 The end of the strong male breadwinner model?	36	(4)
4. The Changing Normative and Institutional Design of Social Policy	40	(57)
4.1 A quantitative perspective	41	(6)
4.2 A qualitative perspective	47	(42)
4.3 The dual transformation of the German welfare state	89	(8)
Part II The Political Dimension
5. Theories Explaining Welfare State Change	97	(17)
5.1 Political and institutional explanations	97	(7)
5.2 Socio-economic explanations	104	(5)
5.3 Evaluating the political, institutional and socio-economic explanations	109	(1)
5.4 A constructivist approach	110	(4)
6. Changing Interpretative Patterns	114	(31)
6.1 Globalisation limits social policy	116	(1)
6.2 Markets, personal responsibility and the welfare state	117	(2)
6.3 The labour market policy discourse	119	(8)
6.4 The pension system within the political discourse	127	(7)
6.5 Debates on family policy	134	(6)
6.6 New interpretative patterns guiding social policy reforms	140	(5)
Part III Conclusions
7. Can Germany still be Considered a Conservative Welfare State?	145	(10)
7.1 Reforming the welfare state - summary of the main policy changes	146	(4)
7.2 Explaining welfare state change	150	(1)
7.3 The German welfare state from a comparative perspective	151	(4)
Notes	155	(13)
Bibliography	168	(19)
Index	187