Spins of (dis)integration: What might 'reformers' in Canada learn from the 'social dimension' of the European Union?

In the Canadian discussion, the EU model ('Social Europe') has inspired a range of proposals for restructuring Canada. The article gives an introduction to 'where the social dimension and social policy are at' in the EU. Then the political relevance of the EU experience for Canada is explored whether this be for a Québécois independence perspective or for a Canadian interprovincial-compact as outlined in 1996 by Thomas Courchene. Finally, I shall conclude with some remarks on 'globalization and the welfare state' - a powerfully related issue, wherein welfare states can turn out to be foundations for both opening up and thence ensuring the openness of western economies for 'embedded liberalism' - as well as for 're-embedding liberalism' - as against being perceived purely as the inevitable victims of an unstoppable 'march of [the forces of] globalization' (Thomas Courchene), as has been most often envisioned. --

Das Staatsschiff Europa: Eine kleine Bildgeschichte

Europa wird meist mit dem Stier dargestellt. Allerdings gibt es auch eine lange Tradition Europa als Schiff abzubilden und damit an die Tradition des Staatsschiffs anzuknüpfen. In dem Artikel werden unterschiedliche Formen des Staatsverständnisses herausgearbeitet, die sich mit dieser Schiffsdarstellung verbinden.Europe ist often shown with the bull (taurus). But there is also a long tradition of imaging Europe as a ship, and to build on the old ship of state metaphor. In this essay different approaches to the sort of state Europe is are shown in the different ways the ship of state metaphor is used in images

Sozialpolitik: Konzepte, Theorien und Wirkungen

Das Arbeitspapier richtet sich an alle, die einen Einstieg in die Sozialpolitikforschung suchen und bietet einen Überblick über die zentrale Konzeptionen, Theorien und Wirkungen von Sozialpolitik. Sozialpolitik war von jeher ein schillernder Begriff und entzieht sich einer allumfassenden Definition, weshalb sowohl eine engere Konzeption als auch weiter gefasste Varianten der Sozialpolitik diskutiert werden. Die enge Konzeption bezieht sich auf "Sozialpolitik als Staatstätigkeit" und wird dann auf sektoraler, funktionaler und territorialer Ebene erweitert. Die Theorien zur Entstehung, zum Wandel, zum Umbau und den nationalen Unterschieden der Sozialpolitik werden systematisch nach drei dominierenden Schulen (Funktionalismus, Machtressourcenansatz, Institutionalismus) abgehandelt und kritisch kommentiert. Im letzten Teil werden die sozialen, wirtschaftlichen und politischen Wirkungen sozialpolitischer Interventionen erörtert. Dabei wird deutlich, dass die positiven Effekte bei aller Kritik dominieren.The working paper is an introduction to social policy research and it reviews central concepts, theories and effects of social policy. The concept of social policy (particularly in its German version "Sozialpolitik") has always been a multifaceted term without a universal definition. Therefore, we discuss a narrow state-centred concept and broaden the conceptual range in sectoral, functional, and territorial dimensions. Furthermore, we critically review the dominant theories of functionalism, power resource, and institutionalism, assessing their contribution to describe and explain the origin, development, national varieties, and recent alterations of social policy. Finally, the social, economic, and political effects of social policy are discussed. The systematic survey of major contributions shows that despite substantial criticism the positive effects prevail

Through the funhouse looking glass: Europe's ship of states

What is the nature of the European Union? Does it have the characteristics of a state, and if so, which? We employ a single imagea poster that won a Marshall Plan competition in 1950to examine the various legal perspectives of the EU that have emerged over the past six decades. Created as a symbol of European unity at the outset of European integration, the image was used half a century later on the book cover of Andrew Moravcsik's instant classic on intergovernmentalism. Here, we reinterpret the image yet againin four different ways. This attempt to sort out the legal perspectives of the EU was inspired by the Lisbon Treaty Case that is currently before the German Constitutional Court and will be decided in May 2009. --

Prospects for a European welfare state: Lessons from welfare state development in six OECD-Federations

This paper uses the findings of a very recent major international research collaboration on the impact of federal arrangements on the development of the welfare state to explore the possibilities of progress beyond Europe's present diversity of nation-state welfare standards. These findings - based on the longterm historical experience of the OECD's oldest federations - suggest that federal arrangements tend to slow down welfare state consolidation, but that much depends on the context of historical development. The emergence of bypass mechanisms circumventing federal veto-points is located as the key to welfare progress, and the role of regulation in European integration and the special role of the ECJ as well as that of "the open method of co-ordination" are tentatively identified as possible EU bypass equivalents. --

Armut filtern: Wie wirkt sich die Armutsdefinition auf die Armutspolitik aus?

Die Veröffentlichung des 3. Armuts- und Reichtumsberichts der Bundesregierung hat in der Öffentlichkeit Betroffenheit ausgelöst. Wie wird Armut gemessen und wie sollte sie bekämpft werden

Expect the unexpected: social asistance dynamics of single or unemployed parents in Germany and the U.S.

"This working paper describes how different poverty policies influence the risk, the duration, and the dynamics of Social Assistance receipt by families. They compare the performance of means-tested income support policies addressed to families with children in Germany and the U.S.A. They rely on two sets of longitudinal administrative data for each country. The somewhat counter-intuitive results may be summarized as follows: In the U.S. lone or unemployed parents who did not leave Social Assistance in their first year of receipt stay on the rolls longer and more continuously than they do in Germany's more generous welfare state. Some selection effects are analyzed to account for these differences. Time related multi-variate analysis shows significant regional disparities in both countries. It also points to the importance of social stratification and labor market characteristics for the found differences."Die international vergleichende Studie arbeitet heraus, daß und wie unterschiedliche Sozial- und Armutspolitiken das Risiko, die Dauer und die Dynamik des Empfangs von Sozialhilfe beeinflussen. Verglichen werden dazu die Transferleistungen an Familien in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Bremen) und den USA im Zeitraum von 1989 bis 1996 mittels einer Längsschnittanalyse der Daten von zwei Gemeinden. Das kontraintuitive Resultat der Untersuchung läßt sich wie folgt zusammenfassen: In den USA bleiben alleinstehende und/oder arbeitslose Eltern wesentlicher länger von staatlichen Hilfeleistungen als in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland abhängig, wenn es ihnen nicht gelingt, im Laufe eines Jahres diesen Status zu verändern. Insgesamt betont die Studie die Bedeutung der sozialen Schichtung und der Arbeitsmarktmerkmale für Sozialhilfeempfänger. (pre