The purpose of this book is to reconsider economic liberalism from the viewpoint of political liberalism. The author argues that advocates of economic liberalism largely overlook empirical political preferences which, in many societies, go far beyond a limited role of the state. Recent difficulties of reforming the welfare state provide evidence that political preferences are at odds with liberal economic policy in numerous cases. This fact challenges a political conception which demands a limited state role but also claims that citizens' preferences 'as they are' should determine the content of policies. Using an evolutionary perspective on economic liberalism, the book develops new arguments about how economic liberalism can be brought into line with political liberalism. Drawing on an evolutionary theory of markets, Gerhard Wegner reinforces the claim that liberal economic policies are conducive to prosperity in society, but he argues that the liberal promise of prosperity does not translate into corresponding political preferences on the part of citizens. A tension between political and economic liberalism arises which lies at the centre of this book. Political Failure by Agreement will strongly appeal to postgraduate students and researchers of global governance, political theory, political economy and institutional economics.

This important book analyses evolutionary approaches to economic policy. Its main purpose is to explore the policy implications of evolutionary economics, in particular of approaches inspired on the one hand by Schumpeter and revived by Nelson and Winter which deal with industrial evolution under constant institutions and, on the other hand, of approaches inspired by Hayek and North, which analyse the ways in which institutions themselves evolve. Hitherto evolutionary economists have paid little attention to policy issues, and the relatively few policy implications that they have produced are divergent. Whereas the Neo-Schumpeterian approach has often been used to support political interventions, the Hayekian viewpoint holds that economic policy detracts from economic performance. More systematic evolutionary analysis of economic policy is required if these one-sided findings are to be transcended. Furthermore, such analysis can be expected to develop a coherent theory of economic policy which will plug the gaps and rectify the errors (such as approval of socialist planning and Japanese industrial policies) of both neoclassical and alternative approaches to policy. Evolutionary economists and policy analysts will find this book of great interest, as will economists and students of economics who are interested in enlarging their views with excursions outside the standard curriculum.

Inherent to a reflective liberalism are its many requirements and preconditions. It demands that personal liberties and public welfare be preserved simultaneously; that the responsibility to self-determine and the ever-expanding social structures of the community be realized concurrently. The theory avoids the overly severe and restrictive social implications and is geared toward plurality and candor. Self-actualization and endogeneity in conjuncture with subsidiarity remain the most important generators for creative interaction.

In the debate surrounding system competition the question is posed regarding whether the competition among nation states for mobile resources is generally desirable or whether it represents a dubious, undesirable trend in the socioeconomic political order. The work discusses matters of system competition, and in particular, whether and in which fields the system competition needs supranational regulations, which in turn channel the competitive processes in a more desirable manner.

The present book is the account of a workshop on Integrated Optics and Micro-Optics with Polymers held in spring 1992 at Mainz and organized by IMM Institute of Microtechnology GmbH, the Max Planck Institute of Poly mer Research, and the Institute of Applied Physics of Friedrich Schiller University at Jena. The field of Integrated Optics and Micro-Optics with Polymers is receiving growing interest from multiple sides. Among the important reasons are the potential of tailoring materials for a specific application, the easy and cheap availability of those materials, and the possibilities of mass fabrica tion with plastiCS. Accordingly, materials researchers, microtechnologists, process engineers, and device builders are active in this field. Their interest is fed from prospective applications of integrated or micro-optical devices and systems in telecommunication, sensors, optical switching and routing, and, in a more distant future, optical processing. The workshop succeeded to bring together more than 130 experimenta lists and theorists, physicists and chemists, device developers and users, materials researchers and process engineers, as well as polymer scien tists and those dealing with anorganic materials, coming from industry, research institutes, and universities."