A Long Goodbye to Bismarck?

“I can think of few edited volumes that manage so successfully to furnish the reader with rich detail and holism all at once. And not least, these contributions to our never-ending concern with the welfare state provide interesting reading, indeed.” Professor Gosta Esping-Andersen Pompeu University, Barcelona "This volume represents the best available scholarship in comparative socio-economic research” “A must read." Fritz Scharpf, Emeritus Director, Max Planck Institute for the Studies of Societies “The contributors to the volume are all recognized experts in their field and provide strictly comparable analyses in their chapters, making this volume a goldmine for comparative welfare state scholars. Palier’s study is certain to become a benchmark for the foreseeable future.” Professor John D. Stephens, Director of the Center for European Studies, University of North Carolina “This volume is the definitive work on the politics of reform in Bismarckian welfare regimes. It features both rich empirical accounts of individual countries and penetrating new comparative analyses. Wonderfully rounded off by synthetic introductory and concluding chapters by Palier, this book is essential reading for any scholar interested in welfare reform – or indeed, in institutional and policy change more generally.” Kathleen Thelen, Ford Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology