Transformations of the Welfare State : Small States, Big Lessons

This book analyzes several small, advanced OECD economies to assess whether the welfare state can compete under the conditions of an increasingly integrated world economy. Looking to the future of the welfare state, in an era newly marked by profound uncertainty, the authors sound an optimistic note.

Herbert Obinger is Professor of Comparative Public and Social Policy at the University of Bremen in Germany. He also directs the Unit on History and Institutions of the Centre for Social Policy Research (CeS) and directs two projects in the Collaborative Research Centre Transformations of the State (TranState). His publications include The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State (OUP 2010) and Federalism and the Welfare State.

Peter Starke is Research Fellow in Political Science at the Collaborative Research Center Transformations of the State (TranState) and at the Centre for Social Policy Research (CeS) at the University of Bremen. He is the author of Radical Welfare State Retrenchment: A Comparative Analysis, and has published several quantitative articles on welfare state convergence.

Julia Moser is Project Manager of Human Resources Development at the RKW German Center for Productivity and Innovation e.V. She was a Research Fellow at the Collaborative Research Centre Transformations of the State (TranState).

Claudia Bogedan is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (WSI) of the Hans Bockler Foundation in Dusseldorf (Germany) and a former research fellow at the Collaborative Research Centre Transformations of the State (TranState), where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on Danish welfare state reforms. Her research focuses on welfare state reforms in Bismarckian welfare states, labor market policies in Germany and the "Nordic Model".

Edith Obinger-Gindulis is a Research Fellow in Political Science at the Collaborative Research Centre Transformations of the State (TranState). Her areas of expertise include abortion politics in OECD-countries and social policy in the German Democratic Republic.

Stephan Leibfried is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Bremen, Director of the Collaborative Research Centre Transformations of the State, and member of the Unit on History and Institutions of the Centre for Social Policy Research there. His publications include The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State (OUP 2010), Welfare States: Construction, Deconstruction, Reconstruction, Transforming the Golden-Age Nation State, and more.