Die Finanzierung der medizinischen Versorgung ihrer Bevölkerung stellt die meisten Entwicklungs- und viele Schwellenländer vor das Dilemma knapper öffentlicher Ressourcen und konkurrierender Prioritäten. Vielerorts ist die öffentliche Krankenversorgung zwar kostenfrei, aber chronisch...

The thesis that European integration has become politicised has prompted a major debate in comparative political science and research on the EU. This debate nevertheless remains inconclusive with regard to links between the objects and thematic focal points of EU controversies (justification...

The paper proceeds as follows: The first section sketches some main theoretical arguments concerning the dynamics of executive governance: first a set of arguments based on organisation theory is developed, after which we look into how policies can determine politics. The subsequent section...

The relationship between science and religion was one of the most important topics in the era when sociology was founded but it has since disappeared from the empirical science studies agenda almost completely. This paper argues for reopening the debates on these issues and develops a...

Viele Betriebe bieten ihren Beschäftigten nicht die Möglichkeiten, sich im Laufe ihres Lebens ausreichend weiterzubilden. Zu den Ursachen liegt eine umfassende Forschung vor. Als ein wesentliches Problem erweist sich das Fehlen zeitlicher Ressourcen. Bisher kaum erforscht sind...

Mit Blick auf die Rekrutierungsseite des Ausbildungsmarktes wird in diesem Beitrag gefragt, ob verringerte Ausbildungschancen von Hauptschülern in Deutschland infolge der Bildungsexpansion durch Upskilling-Prozesse der beruflichen Tätigkeiten (d.h. durch höhere Anforderungen der...

When policy discussions turn to income provisions for the old-aged, the focus is often on Social Security programs and the long-term solvency of national public pension systems. While Social Security remains the most important income source for the non-working elderly in the United States,...

Social protection in case of unemployment has always been a particularly contentious issue. This paper focuses on institutional changes in the unemployment compensation system in Germany since the 1980s. It starts with a description of key features and the structure of the unemployment insurance...

The German Hartz reforms, introduced by the Red-Green coalition government in the years 2003 to 2005, form part of a broader pattern of European activation policies which have become known as new labour policies. The idea of these reforms was to reduce welfare dependency and to boost activity...

In China, as in many developing countries, poverty is primarily a rural phenomenon. Considerable efforts have been made over the last few decades to reduce poverty in China's rural areas; and indeed, the poverty rate in these areas has fallen from 30.7% in 1978 to 3.8% in 2009. This paper begins...