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LITTLE MORE THAN a year after gaining control of the German government, Adolf Hitler proclaimed an end to the Nazi revolution and concentrated on working with established elites in industry [...]

As I am writing these lines at the end of November, the county and city of Passau (where I am from) is putting up more refugees than whole countries in [...]

How does major policy change come about? This article identifies and rectifies weaknesses in the conceptualization of innovative policy change in the Advocacy Coalition Framework. In a case study of policy belief change preceding an innovative reform in the German subsystem of old-age security, important new aspects of major policy change are carved out. In particular, the analysis traces a transition from one single hegemonic advocacy coalition to another stable coalition, with a transition phase between the two equilibria. The transition phase is characterized (i) by a bipolarization of policy beliefs in the subsystem and (ii) by state actors with shifting coalition memberships due to policy learning across coalitions or due to executive turnover. Apparently, there are subsystems with specific characteristics (presumably redistributive rather than regulative subsystems) in which one hegemonic coalition is the default, or the 'normal state.' In these subsystems, polarization and shifting coalition memberships seem to interact to produce coalition turnover and major policy change. The case study is based on discourse network analysis, a combination of qualitative content analysis and social network analysis, which provides an intertemporal measurement of advocacy coalition realignment at the level of policy beliefs in a subsystem. KEY WORDS: Advocacy Coalition Framework, discourse network analysis, policy change, polarization, pension politics, old-age security, demographic change, Germany, policy networks, policy debates, political discourse, Introduction How does major policy change come about? Existing evidence in line with the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) suggests that policy subsystems are structured around competing advocacy coalitions (Sabatier, 1998). [...]

German unification merged two contrasting family models: the East German dual--worker model and the West German male breadwinner model. Since 2002, Germany has been essentially changing directions towards a third model called 'sustainable family policy'. The new policy model conceives of children as society's future assets, seeks to encourage childbearing by supporting parents to be workers and attempts to reduce families' poverty by boosting mothers' employment. By increasing childcare facilities also of very small children and by developing early childhood education politicians claim to invest in children, make up for social inequalities and generate 'sustainable' human capital. The ongoing family policy change seems at odds with mainstream judgments on reform incapability of the German welfare state, path dependence and related policy feedbacks. We still lack a comprehensive explanatory framework which systematically relates the many factors that contributed to the surprising farewell to homebound mothering and, more generally, the emergence of sustainable family policies in Germany. This essay points to factors like older policy legacies, unification, or new cultural constellations that may have colluded to open the windows of opportunity for politicians and policy-related experts to initiate reforms. Zusammenfassung Im Vereinigungsprozess trafen zwei sehr unterschiedliche Familienpolitik-modelle aufeinander: das Zwei-Werktatigen-Modell der DDR und das west-deutsche Ernahrermodell. Seit 2002 folgt die deutsche Familienpolitik einem dritten Modell, dem einer ' nachhaltigen Familienpolitik'. Diese betrachtet Kinder als VermOgen der Gesellschaft und versucht daher junge Erwachsene zum Kinderhaben zu ermutigen, indem Eltern geholfen wird, erwerbstatig zu sein; die mutterliche Erwerbsarbeit soll zugleich helfen, Kinderarmut zu vermeiden. Die neue Familienpolitik beansprucht sozialinvestiv zu sein, Ungleichheit abzubauen und nachhaltig Humankapital zu generieren, weil sie Moglichkeiten auBerhauslicher Betreuung vermehren und auf fruhkindliche Bildung setzen will. Dieser Wandel in der Logik deutsche Familienpolitik widerspricht gangigen Annahmen einer Reformunfahigkeit des deutschen Wohlfahrtsstaats, seiner Pfadabhangigkeit und Lahmung durch policy feedbacks. Noch besitzen wir keinen systematischen Ansatz, der einen Pfadwechsel in der Familienpolitik erklaren kOnnte. Dieser Beitrag verweist auf einige Erklarungsfaktoren, z.B. altere, unterlegene Ideen im Politikerbe, auf die deutsche Einheit oder neue kulturelle Konstellationen, die mit dazu beigetragen haben, dass sich Politikern und politiknahen Experten ein Gelegenheitsfenster fur die Initiierung von Reformen Off-nete., 1 Introduction German unification merged two contrasting family models: the East German dual-worker model and the West German male breadwinner model. While socialist East Germany expected both mothers and fathers [...]

Over the past twenty years or so the German pension system has under gone an almost endless series of reforms. Both the time spans for the respective reform processes themselves and the time spans between the reforms have diminished progressively, and they seem to have been more easily carried out each time. While the 1992 reform, which introduced the net adjustment formula and some other changes, took about ten years of preparation, the most recent reforms have been much less problematic. Often they were prepared, proposed and decided on within one year or even a few months. This, however, seems to contradict the widespread image of Germany as being marked by reform inability, policy inertia and long and ineffective decision--making procedures. These new (politicized) politics of German pension reform have been marked by a change in policy style, creative opportunism on the part of the government, a deliberate strategy of--experimental law-making' (Lamping and Rub 2004) and a striking strategy of blame avoidance (Lamping and Rub 2008). Eventually, the German pension reforms succeeded in transforming the previous regime into a new one without introducing one single, comprehensive reform. Instead, it was a step by step process, adding one reform to another, introducing small amendments while following an incremental path. However, all of these smaller steps add up to fundamental changes which have overhauled basic policy ideas and introduced new ones which have changed the normative foundations and the operational effectiveness of the whole system. Most analyses concentrate on the--privatization' and the introduction of welfare markets in 2001 through the so-called 'Riester-Rente' and their consequences for welfare state beneficiaries. Consequently, some reforms in the traditional state pillar have been insufficiently analyzed or simply neglected. This contribution will attempt to give a full account of the major reform steps which have been introduced since the end of the last century. To be more precise, this will begin with the so-called 1992 pension reform, which was the last one under the non-unified country and was decided upon on the same day the Berlin Wall came down (09. November 1989). Until then, small changes or corrections of former reform steps had taken place virtually every year, sometimes interrupted by major reforms which had been fiercely debated between the political parties, the social partners and by the general public. We will not proceed by analyzing one reform after another, which would involve taking a sequential view (c.f. Hegelich 2006a; for a timetable of the enacted pension reforms see Annex 1). On the contrary, we will employ a cross-sectional perspective that is better able to demonstrate the fundamental changes in all of the main issues of relevance to all pensions systems. We begin with the changes to the mandatory retirement age. Every age limit introduces a justified period of non--work and combines it with a legally regulated claim to a social right: the old--age pension (1). We then pin down the changes in the invalidity pensions which again mark distributional principles that regulate between work and need (2). Both age and disability act as boundaries between the primacy of work within the labor market and social rights. Whereas the former is the normatively and legally expected norm, the latter is the institutionalized exception, the accepted claim for a social income beyond the market in the needs-based systems of the welfare state. We then deal with the adjustment formula of the pensions. In short, the formula regulates how the contributions to the pension systems made during one's working life are transformed into a pension which shall guarantee the standard of living during the entire period of old age (3). Every old age system can be institutionalized either as a mainly state-run system (as in Germany until 2001), as a mainly private system, or as a mainly occupational system or as a mixture of all three. In Germany, the so-called--Riester-Rente' introduced a private pillar into the pension system, which is, however, strongly interconnected with the state-run system. The private pillar is, firstly, voluntary and subsidized by state taxes, and secondly, has lowered the state-run pension by about 4 per cent via the pension adjustment formula (4). The shift to a new public-private mix in pension policy, more specifically the introduction of a new welfare market for additional private provisions which must fulfill certain state-defined criteria, is a complex issue with an uncertain social outcome. Meanwhile (voluntary) private pensions play an increasingly important role in old-age provision. However, there is the inherent danger that the specific design of the new--third pillar' will produce new welfare gaps and lead to new lines of exclusion or marginalization (5). Old-age provision is part of a broader process in the German social security system of gradually increasing the share of tax--financing. This is predominately due to functional (financial) necessities in a defined benefit system in order to prevent the contribution rate from surmounting political thresholds. Additionally, in order to partially compensate for the--downgrading' of the statutory pension insurance, the state subsidizes particular forms of additional private provision which has yet again increased the share of taxes (6). In our conclusion, we attempt to find out what the reforms are all about. Do they fundamentally change the pension system, do they adjust to changes in the economic and societal environment, or is the system still essentially on the Bismarckian path (7)? The results will be mixed. Without following a rational master plan, the various reforms add up to fundamental changes in at least three respects. Firstly. they transform the state--run system from a defined benefit system to a more or less notionally defined contribution system. Secondly, the cascade of recent reforms have significantly increased recommodification and, in old--age, social stratification, while at the same time pushing the statutory pension towards a kind of basic public pension and away from an instrument of status preservation. And thirdly, the reforms have transformed the pension from a citizen's wage into a consumerist self-made pension realized on regulated welfare markets. There is thus reason enough to question whether Germany is still on the conservative path in terms of pension policy. Annex 1: Overview over major and enacted pensions reforms in Germany: Year Name of Reform Reform Measures 1989 Blum I Reform: * change from gross-to Pension Reform Act net-wage indexation 1992 * increase in retirement age for women, unemployed, and disabled * introduction of reductions for early retirement * increase in child rearing periods (from one to three years) 1997 Blum II Reform: Pension * introduction of the Reform Act demographic factor in pension 1999 indexation (never implemented) * increase of child credits from 75% to 100% of the average wage * reduction in disability benefits of 0.3% per month early retirement * increase in retirement age for disability from 60 to 63 * additional federal subsidy of one percentage increase of the VAT 2001 'Riester Reform' * introduction of a voluntary, AVmG state subsidized private or AVmEG occupational pension * lowered net replacement rate of the statutory pension system benefits from 70% to 64% * introduction of special needs based social benefit for pensioners * reduction of the survivor's pensions from 60% to 55% of the deceased's benefits * strict fixation of the contribution rate (20% up to 2020) 2004 Rentenversicherungs * introduction of the -achhaltigkeitsgesetz sustainability factor (Old-Age Pension (Nachhaltigkeitsfaktor) in the Sustainability Act) pension indexation formula * changes in the assessment base for the calculation of the net income in the pension formula * increase in the retirement age for unemployed and part-time workers from 60 to 63 * suspension of pensions adjustment in 2004 and 2005 * abolition of credit points for higher education * lowering the contingency reserve of the pension system 0.5 to 0.2 monthly expenditure 2004 Alters einkunftegesetz * introduction of taxation of pensions * streamlining of the certification criteria for RiesterRente products * unisex tariffs as criteria for the certification for Riester-Rente products 2007 Alters grenzenanpassungsgesetz * increase of the retirement (Retirement Age Adaptation age from 65 to 67 (till 2029) Act) * future financial compensations for suspended pension reductions in 2005 and 2006, 1 Changes in the Retirement Age Changes in the retirement age add up to very important changes concerning, on the one hand, the raising of the mandatory retirement age and, [...]

This paper provides an overview of the sequential shift towards activating labor market and social policy in Germany. It not only shows the changes in the instruments of active and passive labor market policies but also analyzes the implications of this change for the political economy and the legal structure of a 'Bismarckian' welfare state. Our study points at the changes in Germany's status-and occupation-oriented unemployment benefit regime that has been relinquished for a larger share of benefit recipients. Unemployment insurance benefit duration is shorter now and newly created basic income support for needy persons is not earnings-related anymore. Pressure on unemployed to take up jobs has increased considerably while more persons than before have access to labor market programs and individualized services. Dieser Beitrag liefert einen Uberblick uber die schrittweise Reform hin zu einer aktivierten Arbeitsmarkt-und Sozialpolitik in Deutschland. Er zeigt nicht nur den Umbau bei den Instrumenten aktiver und passiver Arbeits-marktpolitik auf, sondern analysiert auch die Implikationen dieser Veranderungen fur die volkswirtschaftliche und rechtliche Struktur eines bismarckschen Wohlfahrtsstaates. Diese Studie weist auf den Wandel des status-und beschaftigungsorientierten Regimes der Arbeitslosenunterstutzung hin, das fur einen groBeren Anteil der Beihilfeempfanger aufgegeben worden ist. Die Dauer der Arbeitslosenversicherung wurde gekurzt und die neu-eingefuhrte Einkommensbeihilfe bemisst sich nicht mehr am Einkommen. Der Druck auf Arbeitslose, Arbeit aufzunehmen hat sich betrachtlich erhoht, wahrend gleichzeitig mehr Menschen als je zuvor Zugang zu Arbeitsmarkt-programmen und individualisierten Beihilfeprogrammen haben., 1 Introduction Although Germany has a long-standing reputation as a passive welfare state with elaborate schemes of status-protecting income replacement through social insurance in case of unemployment and a full-blown [...]

The recent German welfare state reform with the introduction of Social Code II has created a complex situation for the labour market integration of long-term unemployed people with disabilities. A range of social laws with differing underlying principles is now applicable. In this article, we examine the effects that the implementation of this social code has on long-term unemployed people with disabilities. We show that their integration patterns changed. This is due to the building of new institutions responsible for labour market integration, followed by a temporary destabilisation of work routines at the operational level. Additionally, more persistent consequences occur because the inconsistencies of the relevant laws are creating an area of conflict, which is increasing the risk of marginalising people with disabilities in terms of labour market integration. doi: 10.1017/S0047279409990419

The article examines the development of language, the immigration policies and education among ethnic returnees settled in Germany and Japan.

The confrontation between Germany's Christian Democratic Union politicians and the German left over the country's immigration policy is analyzed.

I examine patterns of joblessness among immigrant men and women from 33 countries of origin now living in Britain, Germany and Sweden. Access to welfare, access to the labor market, [...]

SINCE THE MID- 1970S, THE TREND IN PUBLIC POLICY FOR GERMAN CITIES HAS SHIFTED from more socially inclusive to more exclusive measures. Due to global competitive pressures and growing neoliberalization, [...]

The reparation schemes that were developed in response to nazi policies of persecution and genocide are discussed. French, East German and Swiss compensation policies are compared with the focus on intersections between victim reparations and the construction of collective memory.

Research proves that change in Germany has occurred unevenly in the three areas of citizenship rights, which are political citizenship, social citizenship and civil citizenship. It shows remarkable progress in political representation for women for a conservative gender regime, but the social and civil rights for women, the area that comprises the first domain of citizenship, have expanded at a slower pace.

Research has been conducted on HIV/AIDS surveillance in Germany. Results demonstrate that AIDS case or death reporting is not mandatory in Germany and that the reports are made on the voluntary basis by doctors treating patients.

Statutory health insurance is a centerpiece of the German welfare state, which considers itself to be a 'social insurance state. 'At the same time, due to a large volume of interpersonal redistributions that occur in health insurance, it is the most ambitious branch of the country's social insurance system. The stability of the health scheme thus depends on a 'culture of solidarity' to maintain the legitimacy of these redistributions. This article analyzes recent changes in the legislative framework of the statutory health insurance. It asks whether these changes which predominantly aim to contain employers nonwage labor costs by making the insured bear a larger share of total health care spending, are possibly weakening the moral infrastructure of the welfare state. To this end, findings from qualitative interviews with insured persons are evaluated in view of recently approved and currently proposed legislative changes to the health scheme. The analytical focus is the question whether the two equity principles of this scheme, delivering health care according to medical need and financing it according to the 'ability-to-pay,' are becoming endangered., INTRODUCTION In 1883, the first step toward the development of a comprehensive social insurance based system of protection against social risks in Germany was taken with the introduction of the [...]

This study examines the possible health impact of marginal employment, including both temporary and part-time employment schemes. It addresses three research questions: (1) Are employed people with a fixed-term contract or no contract more likely to report poor health than those who hold jobs with permanent contracts? (2) Are part-time employed respondents (even when they hold jobs with permanent contracts) more likely to report poor health than full-time workers? (3) Does change in employment stability (i.e., from employment with permanent contract to fixed-term or no contract employment and vice-versa) have an impact on health status? Logistic regression models were used to analyze panel data from Britain and Germany (1991-1993), available in the Household Panel Comparability Project data base. We included 10,104 respondents from Germany and 7988 from Britain. A single measure of perceived health status was used as the dependent variable. Controlling for background characteristics, the health status of part-time workers with permanent contracts is not significantly different from those who are employed full-time. In contrast, full-time employed people with fixed-term contracts in Germany are about 42 per cent more likely to report poor health than those who have permanent work contracts. In Britain, only part-time work with no contract is associated with poor health, but the difference is not statistically significant. We conclude that monitoring the possible health effects of the increasing number of marginal employment arrangements should be given priority on the social welfare research agenda. Keywords: Marginal employment; Part-time employment; Britain and Germany

This is the first account of the prison in the Weimar Republic (1918-33), set in the context of the evolution of German social policy. In the early years, the Weimar prison was characterized by hunger, overcrowding, and conflict. At this time, leading officials agreed on a new approach to imprisonment, influenced by the demand for the `incapacitation of incorrigibles, reformation of reformables'. This principle was championed by the modern school of criminal law, designed to replace traditional policy based on deterrence and uniform retribution. The policy of reform and repression shaped the Weimar prison. Most prison officials supported the indefinite confinement of `incorrigibles'. While this did not become law, many prisoners classified as `incorrigible' (increasingly after `objective' examinations) received worse treatment than others, both in prison and after their release. Regarding the `reformables', some institutions introduced measures aimed at prisoner rehabilitation. But such policies were not fully implemented in other prisons, not least because of resistance by local prison officials. During the collapse of the Weimar Republic in the early 1930s, measures aimed at rehabilitation, only just introduced, were cut back again. By contrast, the repression of `incorrigibles' was pursued with even more vigour than before, an important legacy for Nazi penal policy.

This article describes the history of the heated legal controversy in Germany about prescribing medicinal narcotics. The professional corporations of medical doctors have claimed a right to govern the interpretation and definition of legal terms and for a long time resisted the clinical insights and practical experience about maintenance treatment that had been gathered from abroad. The next logical step was to prescribe heroin--also formerly a licensed medication--in cases where methadone was not accepted of physically tolerated by patients. Slowly the social and political taboos against providing narcotic maintenance to addicts have been removed. The author addresses the question of whether prescribing heroin to addicts can reduce health and social problems and improve the client's quality of life.

Within a global context, Germany was relatively late in its acceptance of substitution treatment, having first introduced methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, Germany has taken a number of legal steps which favor harm reduction, assistance and treatment, rather than the law enforcement approach that was dominant before. As a result of this new commitment, Germany now also allows the use of non-methadone substitutes, such as buprenorphine, LAAM, dihydrocodeine (DHC) and codeine. A heroin maintenance trial has been scheduled to begin in early 2002. Despite the fact that the overall number of participants in drug-substitution treatment has risen over the past decade from about 1,000 in the early 1990s to more than 55,000 in 2001 and that MMT has been comprehensively evaluated in Germany with favorable outcomes, there remains a lack of availability of and accessibility to substitution treatment, due to rigid entry and treatment criteria imposed by the social health insurers (SHI).

Primary drug prevention in Germany has been in a constant state of transition since the early 1970s. Five consecutive phases can be identified; (1) drug deterrence and repression; (2) drug education and drug information; (3) primary drug prevention through alternatives to risk-taking, and the strengthening of personal resources; (4) primary drug prevention through strengthening of personal and social resources, promotion of resistance and life skills; (5) primary drug prevention through strengthening of personal and social resources, promotion of resistance and life skills, the promotion of harm reduction and competence in risk-taking with young people who may already consume legal or illegal drugs. During the last decade, the concept of health promotion, with its integration of individual, contextual and structural prevention has served as a guide. Beginning in the mid-1990s, secondary and tertiary prevention efforts have attracted growing interest. The integrative concept of 'risk-taking competence,' which introduces harm reduction approaches into primary prevention strategies, is favored in contemporary discussion and practice.

This paper traces the question of whether there is a growing process of rationalization underlying drug policy and drug treatment, in the sense of the 'McDonaldization' thesis established by Ritzer (2000). Taking Germany as an example, there is some evidence that endeavors to achieve enhanced efficiency may actually lead to a lack of rationality. Here we explore the historical background of this McDonaldization process as it relates to drug policy and treatment in Germany. Is it possible to escape from the 'irrationality of rationality,' that is, the intense efforts directed at efficiency in drug treatment?

In Germany public health is impaired by high alcohol consumption and alcohol related damage. Yet very few people who participate in excessive forms of alcohol consumption obtain any alcohol specific treatment. The present German controversy surrounding Controlled Drinking (CD) as an appropriate treatment goal and a means to improve the range and effectiveness of the existing health care system is discussed. In this article the author provides an overview of the German CD trials. The German behavioral self-control programs (the 'AkT' group program and the bibliotherapeutic '10 Steps Program') that triggered the present debate on CD are discussed as well. It is concluded that with regard to public health, ethical, therapeutic, and effectiveness concerns, CD approaches should become adjunct to the traditional German abstinence oriented treatment system for alcohol and drug addicts.

The term 'drug checking' is defined here as the provision of secondary prevention services in the field. Specifically, ecstasy and other new synthetic drugs are frequently being used at raves (dance parties with electronic music), and now these substances may be analyzed onsite to determine their content. Drug checking is also useful for the early detection of drug consuming trends through systematic monitoring. Whereas in neighboring European states, drug checking and monitoring is a growing trend, in Germany the realization of such innovative field methods for prevention and research cannot take place because of legal prohibitions.

After working in a juridical gray field for nearly a decade, drug consumption rooms were legalized by the German government in February 2000, with certain legal and professional stipulations. At present, 16 such facilities are being operated in 5 large German cities. This study describes the effects of the drug consumption rooms and summarizes the available scientific data associated with their evaluation. Finally, problematic aspects of drug consumption rooms ate discussed.

The author first describes the history of medical use of cannabis and its revival in the 1990s. He then provides en overview of the legal situation and how this affects doctors and patients if cannabis is prescribed or recommended as treatment. Subsequently, the state of the art of cannabis medication research is described and analyzed. Finally, the public and political discourse that arose in reaction to legal and political efforts to legalize cannabis for medical purposes is described.

The author describes the German drug policy approach of 'Therapy instead of punishment' and its legal ramifications. The substantive and formal requirements of the pertinent laws and their interpretations are identified. Four options are considered: (1) deferral of prison detention in favor of in-patient drug treatment; (2) deferral of prison detention in favor of both drug-free and drug maintenance outpatient treatment; (3) refraining from prosecution and sentencing; and (4) deferral of prison detention in favor of outpatient treatment.

Social exclusion--currently defined as an undesired phenomenon that governments and societies at large are supposed to be battling against--used to be held in high regard during the fascist reign in Germany. This article shows how stigmatization and exclusion policies towards drug dealers and users during the Third Reich prepared the policy of extermination and anticipated the anti-drug discourse in contemporary Germany.

This article examines the impact of religious and secular conflicts over education in 19th century France, Sweden, and Germany. The author maintains dramatic clerical and anticlerical conflicts resulted in the incorporation of preschools into the national educational system, whereas the more accommodating church-state relationships in Sweden and Germany prevented such an incorporation.

The failure of the socialization of heavy industry in West Germany following the Second World War has often been ascribed to American reluctance to allow meaningful social reform in the face of an intensifying Cold War. But a closer look at the socialization issue during the latter half of the 1940s demonstrates the enormous complexity of transforming Germany's heavy industry. First, the British, who originally advocated socialization, i.e. the public ownership of heavy industry, had done so on security grounds. But when trying to reach out to `democratic' Germans, such as social democrats and left wing members of the Christian democratic union, the British realized the difficulty of cultivating a meaningful consensus within western Germany concerning the fate of heavy industry. In the end, they therefore acceded to American arguments that socialization of such important industries should wait until the creation of a central German government. But once a central German government existed from 1949, socialization did not take place. The chief reason for this was that West German social democrats had already concluded in 1947 that American `domination' of western Germany meant the stifling of social reform. They therefore ceded leadership over German affairs to a Christian democratic union decidedly more favourable to free enterprise. Instead, the social democrats and their trade union allies concentrated their efforts at social reform in the introduction and institutionalization of management--labour co-determination.

This article discusses the impact Sofia Kovalevskaia, the first female professor of mathematics in modern Europe, had on women's role in scholarship in Germany. The author, maintaining Kovalevskaia's research and early death sparked intense debate surrounding the question of women's entry into higher education, examines the portrayal of her by supporters as a role model and her opponents portrayal of her as unfulfilled and incomplete as a woman.

Simon Green is Lecturer in German Politics at the Institute for German Studies, University of Birmingham. His research interests lie in immigration, asylum and citizenship policy, both in Germany and [...]

This article examines the special needs of the mentally ill homeless in Germany. The authors, maintaining mental disorders among the homeless are increasing, argue unrestricted mental health services should be developed, serious efforts should be made to prevent homelessness, and counseling centers and homeless and health care institutions need to cooperate more and focus on the complex problems related to homelessness.

European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) (*) Are immigrants on welfare because they are more likely to be eligible or because they are more likely to claim benefits for which they [...]

This article provides an evaluation of Germany's health insurance law regarding the long term care of the elderly. The author, maintaining Germany began to implement new laws in 1995, states that the laws have provided affordable long term care, have restructured community based care, and has created hundreds of new agencies.

This article argues that globalisation threatens the ability of states to continue providing for the economic and social security of their citizens. The neo-liberal Zeitgeist that accompanies globalisation has now carried over to the social democratic parties of Europe, which have moved toward the political centre. Convergence criteria imposed by the European Union to introduce monetary union have added to the downward pressure on European welfare states. The German Sozialstaat predates the development of modem welfare states and is thus firmly anchored in the political culture of the country. Nevertheless, high unemployment, the costs of unification, and concern over global economic competitiveness are taking their toll on the ability of Germany's government to continue funding social welfare schemes. Unification, in particular, has added enormously to public expenditures, while self-sustaining economic development is not in sight.

Welfare states in all advanced industrialized countries are under severe financial stress. Many observers argue that in responding to such pressures, governments are converging on a path of marketization and privatization of social risks, which ultimately leads to the unraveling of solidarity. Recent health care reforms in Britain, Germany, and the United States serve as case studies that challenge this argument, Far from converging on a market path, each country has pursued a distinctive reform response combining markets with other policy instruments. Moreover, where state actors lead the way in constructing health care markets, the extent of desolidarity is limited. The structure of each nation's health care system shapes the policy preferences and reform strategies of key actors, and thereby helps explain the distinctiveness of health care reform patterns.

As life expectancy increases, as does the population of elderly, new social policies need to be devised. The author examines Germany's pension reforms, such as increasing the age of retirement, which are dependent on the labor market and are being implemented to deal with an aging work force.