From “a frozen landscape” to structural reforms, The sequential transformation of Bismarckian welfare systems

While, during the 1980s, attention was centred first on analysing welfare state crisis, and then on understanding the differences between welfare states, the key preoccupation now is the analysis and understanding of welfare reforms (Martin 1997). In pursuit of this objective, recent comparisons have either analysed all types of welfare regimes (Esping-Andersen 1996; Ferrera and Rhodes 2000; Scharpf and Schmidt 2000; Ebbinghaus and Manow 2001; Leibfried 2000; Pierson 2001; Sykes et al. 2001; Huber and Stephens 2001; Swank 2002; Wilensky 2002), or focused specifically on the liberal or else on the Nordic regimes (Pierson 1994; Orloff et al. 1999; Kautto et al. 2001; Revue Française des Affaires Sociales 2003). But to date no systematic comparative research has been conducted on recent developments in the ‘conservative corporatist’ or Bismarckian welfare regimes based mainly on social insurance mechanisms (...)