How do United States public policies differ from those of other wealthy democracies? Why do they differ? "The Roots of American Exceptionalism" draws on societies' unique histories, distinctive paths of institutional development and contrasting cultures to explain why they adopt different policies for common problems. It compares the United States with Sweden on tax policy, Canada on financing medical care, France on abortion policy, and Japan on immigration. The book shows that American public policies across these four areas fit a pattern of embodying the fundamental beliefs and value priorities of a particular culture: individualism. And while American public policies are rational from this cultural perspective, the relative strengths and weaknesses of this culturally-constrained rationality are contrasted with those of alternative, more egalitarian and/or hierarchical, culturally-constrained rationalities which prevail in Sweden, Canada, France and Japan.

A comprehensive perspective on the German Mittelstand is provided. The authors do not only consider internal management aspects of these companies but also their societal environment. Therefore, four of the nine chapters in the first part of the book are related to the environment of the German Mittelstand while five chapters compiled in the second part focus on different management aspects of Mittelstand companies. Among the topics addressed are organization, marketing management, supply chain and innovation management, and financial management in the Mittelstand.
The authors take diverse approaches to studying Mittelstand companies. This book contains mostly qualitative papers, survey-based papers as well as papers based on case studies.

The human face is invariably interesting, even as an object of embryologic analysis. The early embryonic growth processes are located around the developing sense organs, among which the nose holds a key position. The first indication of the development of the nose is the formation of the placodes, oval areas of thick ened and condensed ectoderm, one on each side of the head. Each of these placodes is transformed, via the nasal groove, into the nasal tube, sometimes indicated as primitive nasal cavity. In the literature this transformation has been described as an isolated process that changes the superficial facial region. Some authors, including Wolgensinger (1950), think that the active component of this trans formation primarily is the ectoderm of the nasal placode. Others, i. e. Hochstetter (1891), Kallius (1905) and Vermeij-Keers (1967), assume this component be located in the mesenchyme. Peter (1913, 1949), Patten (1953, 1961), Warbrick (1960), and Andersen and Matthiessen (1967) hold both these components to be active. In the first and last of these three concepts the ectoderm of the nasal placode and the nasal groove respectively, is thought to invade the mesenchyme in the posterior direction. Invading ectoderm has also been considered to form - independent of the transformation - the organ of Jacobson and the naso lacrimal duct and to separate the conchae (e. g. Born, 1876; Legal, 1883; Kallius, 1905; Peter, 1913, 1949; Streeter, 1948; Andersen and Matthiessen, 1967)."

The first major study of the contemporary German debate over "normalization" and its impact across the range of cultural, political, economic, intellectual, and historical discourses. This volume features sixteen thought-provoking essays by renowned international experts on German society, culture, and politics that, together, provide a comprehensive study of Germany's postunification process of "normalization." Essays ranging across a variety of disciplines including politics, foreign policy, economics, literature, architecture, and film examine how since 1990 the often contested concept of normalization has become crucial to Germany'sself-understanding. Despite the apparent emergence of a "new" Germany, the essays demonstrate that normalization is still in question, and that perennial concerns -- notably the Nazi past and the legacy of the GDR -- remain central to political and cultural discourses and affect the country's efforts to deal with the new challenges of globalization and the instability and polarization it brings. This is the first major study in English or German of the impact of the normalization debate across the range of cultural, political, economic, intellectual, and historical discourses. Contributors: Stephen Brockmann, Jeremy Leaman, Sebastian Harnisch and Kerry Longhurst, Lothar Probst, Simon Ward, Anna Saunders, Annette Seidel Arpaci, Chris Homewood, Andrew Plowman, Helmut Schmitz, Karoline Von Oppen, William Collins Donahue, Kathrin Schoedel, Stuart Taberner, Paul Cooke Stuart Taberner isProfessor of Contemporary German Literature, Culture, and Society and Paul Cooke is Senior Lecturer in German Studies, both at the University of Leeds.