Bruno Palier & Claude Martin 
Reforming the Bismarckian Welfare Systems 

Gathering among the best European specialists of welfare state
comparisons, this book organises comprehensive and up to date
information on European welfare state reforms in an analytical
framework which allows a new approach to social policy changes.

* Demonstrates that, contrary to the common view, ‘Bismarckian’
welfare states have changed significantly

* Contains long term but also very accurate data and perspective
beginning from the 1980s and up to the most recent reforms

* Speaks to two literatures: the one on welfare state, social
policies and welfare state reforms; the other to the political
science literature on changes, path dependency and incremental
changes

* Organises comprehensive and up to date information on European
welfare state reforms in an analytical framework

* Includes contributions from the best specialists of the field,
including members of the European academic community of social
policy comparativists

Table of Content

1. Editorial Introduction: From ‘a Frozen Landscape’ to
Structural Reforms: The Sequential Transformation of Bismarckian
Welfare Systems (Bruno Palier and Claude Martin).

2. When Past Reforms Open New Opportunities: Comparing Old-age
Insurance Reforms in Bismarckian Welfare Systems (Giuliano Bonoli
and Bruno Palier).

3. Towards Neo-Bismarckian Health Care States? Comparing Health
Insurance Reforms in Bismarckian Welfare Systems (Patrick
Hassenteufel and Bruno Palier).

4. Continental Drift: On Unemployment Policy Change in
Bismarckian Welfare States (Daniel Clegg).

5. From Subsidiarity to ‘Free Choice’: Child- and
Elder-care Policy Reforms in France, Belgium, Germany and the
Netherlands (Nathalie Morel).

6. Activation as a Common Framework for Social Policies towards
Lone Parents (Trudie Knijn, Claude Martin and Jane Millar).

7. Long-term Care Policies in Italy, Austria and France:
Variations in Cash-for-Care Schemes (Barbara Da Roit, Blanche Le
Bihan and August Österle).

8. Family Policies in Germany and France: The Role of
Enterprises and Social Partners (Ute Klammer and
Marie-Thérèse Letablier).

Index.

About the author

Bruno Palier is CNRS Researcher at Sciences Po. Trained in
social science, he has a PHD in Political science, and is a former
student of Ecole Normale Superieure. He is studying welfare reforms
in Europe, and is currently conducting a comparative project on the
politics of welfare reforms in Continental Europe. He was Visiting
Scholar at Northwestern University (Spring quarter 2007), at Center
for European Studies from Harvard University in 2001 and Jean
Monnet Fellow in the European University Institute in Florence in
1998-1999. He is currently the scientific coordinator of an
European Network of excellence RECWOWE (Reconciling Work and
Welfare).

Claude Martin is CNRS senior research fellow at the
University of Rennes 1 (Centre de recherches sur l’action
politique en Europe) and director of the LAPSS at the National
school of public health. Trained in sociology (Ph D), he teaches at
the Institute of political science in Rennes and at Sorbonne
University. He was a member of the European Observatory on Social
situation, demography and the Family of the European Commission
(1998-2005). His research interests concerns social care and social
policies in Europe. He is co-editing with Jane Jenson the
international journal: Lien social et politiques and is a
member of the board of Social Policy and Administration.