Federalism and the Welfare State

Herbert Obinger is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Social Policy Research, University of Bremen and principal investigator at its TranState Research Centre. He has written on Swiss federalism, the role of political parties and institutions in shaping recent welfare state development and public policy typologies in advanced democratic states. Stephan Leibfried is Professor of Social Policy and Social Administration in the Department of Political Science at the University of Bremen and co-initiator of Bremen's TranState Research Centre. He has written extensively on welfare state development, and on the effects of European integration as well as globalisation on national welfare states. Francis G. Castles is Professor of Social and Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh. His previous books are The Future of the Welfare State: Crisis Myths and Crisis Realities (2004) and Australia Reshaped: 200 Years of Institutional Tranformation (co-edited with Geoffrey Brennan, Cambridge University Press, 2002).

'Social science is at its best when it questions conceived wisdom with rigorous empirical analysis. This is exactly what Federalism and the Welfare State does, and it does it very well, indeed, showing that decentralized polities do not necessarily imply weaker welfare states. Written by some of the World's leading authorities, this book is a must for students of federalism and of the welfare state - an exceedingly important scientific contribution.' Goesta Esping-Andersen, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

• Preface; 1. Introduction: Federalism and the welfare state Herbert Obinger, Francis G. Castles and Stephan Leibfried; Part I. New World Experiences: 2. Australia - federal constraints and institutional innovations Francis G. Castles and John Uhr; 3. Canada - nation-building in a federal welfare Keith Banting; 4. The United States – federalism and counterfactuals Kenneth Finegold; Part II. European Experiences: 5. Austria - strong parties in a weak federal system Herbert Obinger; 6. Germany - cooperative federalism and the overgrazing of the fiscal commons Philip Manow; 7. Switzerland - the marriage of direct democracy and federalism Herbert Obinger, Klaus Armingeon, Giuliano Bonoli and Fabio Bertozzi; 8. Conclusion: old and new politics in federal welfare states Stephan Leibfried, Francis G. Castles and Herbert Obinger.