Christine Trampusch

Economic Reform and the Political Economy of the German Welfare State

The central problem of the German economy is the high costs of labour, driven up by the burden of funding an extensive welfare state through social insurance contributions that operate as payroll taxes on employment. The study identifies the political causes of the long-term rise in non-wage labour costs. It analyses the reforms of the last decade, showing how the multiplicity of veto points in the German political economy has weakened reform initiatives and reduced the prospect for effective reform in the foreseeable future.

Review Article: Comparative Political Science and the Study of Education

The study of education has long been a neglected subject in political science. Recently, however, scholarly interest in the field has been increasing rapidly. This review essay introduces the general readership to this burgeoning literature with a particular focus on work in comparative public policy and political economy. Particular topics discussed are the historical and political foundations of contemporary education systems, the political and institutional determinants of education policies, the internationalization and Europeanization of education, the political economy of skill formation in varieties of capitalism and the effects of education policies. The article also introduces scholarship in related disciplines such as economics, sociology and comparative education sciences, and points out avenues for future interdisciplinary dialogue between political science and these disciplines.

Industrial Relations as a Source of Solidarity in Times of Welfare State Retrenchment

Within the literature on retrenchment policies, the ‘solidarity-decline thesis’ is discussed. It is argued that current welfare state restructuring leads to a decrease in the actual social cohesion of society because redistributive public benefits are cut. The article addresses this thesis by presenting empirical evidence on social security based on collective bargaining. In Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands, collective agreements are increasingly used to regulate and finance social benefits. These collectively negotiated benefits may compensate to a certain degree for solidarity losses caused by retrenchment policies. The article reviews concepts of solidarity used in the literature and develops a two-dimensional scheme of four different concepts. The conclusion for comparative welfare state research is twofold. First, when viewing policies of welfare state retrenchment, the research should systematically include industrial relations in its frame of reference. Second, further studies should analyse the politics as well as the outcomes of collectively negotiated benefits more systematically. Under certain conditions, which are worth specifying, collective bargaining may lead to complex public–private mixes that shift welfare states in other directions than outright market liberalisation, not only in factual but also in normative terms.

Between X and Y: how process tracing contributes to opening the black box of causality

ABSTRACT This article maps the methodological debate on process tracing and discusses the diverse variants of process tracing in order to highlight the commonalities beyond diversity and disagreements. Today most authors agree that process tracing is aimed at unpacking causal and temporal mechanisms. The article distinguishes two main types of use for process tracing. Some are more inductive, aimed at theory building (i.e. at uncovering and specifying causal mechanisms) while others are more deductive, aimed at theory testing (and refining). The paper summarizes the main added value and drawbacks of process tracing. It ends by providing ten guidelines for when and how to apply process tracing.

Industrial relations and welfare states: the different dynamics of retrenchment in Germany and the Netherlands

Proceeding from an historical-analytical reconstruction of the development of collectively negotiated benefits in Germany and the Netherlands, this paper investigates the role and function of industrial relations as a provider and financial supporter of welfare. It argues that social policy based on collective agreements strongly influences contemporary retrenchment policies. Reviewing the literature on retrenchment policies, the paper argues that unions and employers should be regarded as collective actors supporting retrenchment by offering financial and organizational resources to governments in their attempts at welfare delegation. The implication is that the study of comparative welfare retrenchment should move beyond its focus on analysing the political behaviour of the actors involved, to include industrial relations systematically in its frame of reference. Research should take into account patterns of institutionalization of labour relations at company level, traditions of government support for collectively negotiated benefits, and differences in the relative development of public and collectively negotiated benefits.

Liberalization by Exhaustion : Transformative Change in the German Welfare State and Vocational Training System

This article argues that tiro core domains of the German coordinated market economy have undergone transformative institutional change: the welfare stale and the vocational training system. We argue that this process is best described as a process of liberalization resulting from the exhaustion of traditional institutions. Exhaustion describes a mechanism of institutional change in which endogenous negative feedback effects, caused by the over extension of resources, lead to a transformation of the formerly symmetrical and consensual relationship between the state, employers and unions into an asymmetrical and conflictual one. The article contributes to the analysis of institutional change and applies the comparative method of the “parallel demonstration of theory”.

The Financialisation of Sovereign Debt: An Institutional Analysis of the Reforms in German Public Debt Management

This study explores the financialisation of sovereign debt through an in-depth study of institutional change in German debt management. Between 1998 and 2006, the Ministry of Finance fundamentally altered the management of federal public debt by not only disempowering the Bundesbank and Federal Debt Administration as debt managers and outsourcing this task to a new agency, the Federal Finance Agency; moreover, the conservative debt strategy was replaced by strict market orientation. Conceptualising this change as institutional innovation, the paper argues that the Ministry of Finance played a leading role in the reform process. It shows that the arrival of the Euro brought with it a power struggle between the Ministry and the Bundesbank. The evidence fits better the concept of institutional innovation as a result of entrepreneurship than approaches which conceptualise institutional innovations as consequences of profit maximisation or layering and displacement.

From Interest Groups to Parties: The Change in the Career Patterns of the Legislative Elite in German Social Policy

Analysing the careers of members of the Bundestag Standing Committee for Labour and Social Affairs, the paper demonstrates that the ties between social politicians and social policy organisations such as trade unions, faith-based social policy organisations, independent charity organisations, works councils and social insurance institutions have become blurred. Since the 1990s social politicians have become more focused on political careers in the party and in parliament than on social policy. The new social politicians are party politicians who have distanced themselves from the interest groups. The qualitative change in parliamentary personnel is explained by changes in electoral politics, parties and interest groups. The author argues that the weakening linkages confirm contemporary research results on change in German neo-corporatism. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2004 Conference of Europeanists ‘Europe and the World: Integration, Interdependence, Exceptionalism?’, 11–13 March 2004, Chicago, Panel: ‘The End of Labor Politics? Contemporary Change in Western and Eastern Europe’ and at the Workshop ‘The End of Labor Politics?’, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, 17–18 June 2004.

The welfare state and trade unions in Switzerland: an historical reconstruction of the shift from a liberal to a post-liberal welfare regime

Switzerland is an extreme case that exhibits affinities to both the liberal and continental welfare state. Furthermore, trade union social policy activities mirror the development of the welfare state. While in the liberal phase of the Swiss welfare state, trade unions were sceptical of national social policy and therefore preferred union-run welfare schemes and collective bargaining. During Switzerland’s post-liberal phase, trade unions have become proponents of national social policy legislation. Switzerland’s exceptionality gives reason to explore the specific conditions under which unions change their social policy activities. Using the method of process tracing and an historical institutionalist approach, this article argues that unions’ industrial and political integration decisively affect their decision on the use of private and public welfare schemes. The article draws two conclusions: first, when viewing policies of welfare state development, the research should analyse union-run welfare schemes and social benefits based on industrial agreements. Second, it argues that the Swiss case is valuable for the welfare regime approach as it confirms the divide between liberal and continental welfare states.

Co-evolution of skills and welfare in coordinated market economies? A comparative historical analysis of Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland

The Varieties of Capitalism literature argues that different forms of market economies, skill systems and welfare regimes are causally related, because preferences follow a logic of asset-specific investment. This article demonstrates the strength of comparative historical analysis in supplementing the human capital investment model by a more contextualized perspective. The main argument is that both the evolution of training regimes and the development of unemployment insurance schemes are primarily governed by a logic of organization-building by capital and labour. This logic is mediated by trajectories of industrialization, patterns of state intervention in the labour market and the institutionalization of labour relations. Our understanding of relationships between political-economic institutions should be open to variable paths leading to co-evolutionary developments.