This volume seeks to contribute to an interdisci-plinary, comparative, and historical study of Western welfare states. It attempts to link their historical dynamics and contemporary problems in an international perspective. Building on collaboration between European-and American-based research groups, the editors have coordinated contributions by economists, political scientists, sociologists, and historians. The developments they analyze cover a time span from the initiation of modern national social policies at the end of the nineteenth century to the present. The experiences of all the presently existing Western European systems except Spain and Por-tugal are systematically encompassed, with com-parisons developed selectively with the experi-ences of the United States and Canada. The devel-opment of the social security systems, of public expenditures!and taxation, of public education and educational opportunities, and of income inequal-ity are described, compared, and analyzed for varying groupings of the Western European and North American nations. This volume addresses itself mainly to two audi-ences. The first includes all students of policy problems of the welfare states who seek to gain a comparative perspective and historical under-standing. A second group may be more interested in the theory and empirical analysis of long-term societal developments. In this context, the growth of the welfare states ranges as a major departure, along with the development of national states and capitalist economies. The welfare state is interpreted as a general phenomenon of modernization, as a product of the increasing differentiation and the growing size of societies on the one hand, and of processes of social and political mobilization on the other. It is an important element of the structural convergence of modern societies by its mere weight in all countries and at the same time a source of divergence by the variations within its institutional structure.

First published in 1998, this volume contains an edited selection of papers presented at the Fifth International Research Seminar on 'Issues in Social Security', held on 14-17 June 1997 in Sweden by the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security (FISS) in memory of Brian Abel-Smith. The chapters cover a wide range of subjects related to old age pension reform, family policy, employment, privatization of social security and health care. The authors form a body of well-established researchers and scholars of world-wide reputation as well as younger scientists, stemming from various continents, and representing a range of relevant disciplines. This volume is the fourth in a series on international studies of issues in social security. The series is initiated by the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security (FISS). One of its aims is to confront different academic approaches with each other, and with public policy perspectives. Another is to give analytic reports of cross-nationally different approaches to the design and reform of welfare state programs.

This volume seeks to contribute to an interdisci-plinary, comparative, and historical study of Western welfare states. It attempts to link their historical dynamics and contemporary problems in an international perspective. Building on collaboration between European-and American-based research groups, the editors have coordinated contributions by economists, political scientists, sociologists, and historians. The developments they analyze cover a time span from the initiation of modern national social policies at the end of the nineteenth century to the present. The experiences of all the presently existing Western European systems except Spain and Por-tugal are systematically encompassed, with com-parisons developed selectively with the experi-ences of the United States and Canada. The devel-opment of the social security systems, of public expenditures!and taxation, of public education and educational opportunities, and of income inequal-ity are described, compared, and analyzed for varying groupings of the Western European and North American nations. This volume addresses itself mainly to two audi-ences. The first includes all students of policy problems of the welfare states who seek to gain a comparative perspective and historical under-standing. A second group may be more interested in the theory and empirical analysis of long-term societal developments. In this context, the growth of the welfare states ranges as a major departure, along with the development of national states and capitalist economies. The welfare state is interpreted as a general phenomenon of modernization, as a product of the increasing differentiation and the growing size of societies on the one hand, and of processes of social and political mobilization on the other. It is an important element of the structural convergence of modern societies - by its mere weight in all countries - and at the same time a source of divergence by the variations within its institutional structure.

Stein Rokkan was one of the leading social scientists of the post-war world. He was a prolific writer whose main contribution to social science - the conceptual and developmental map of Europe - is presented here for the first time in an integrated and systematic way.

Tabellen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 186 Anmerkungen 0 0 o o o o o o o 0 o 0 o 0 o o o 0 o o o 0 o o o 0 o 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 o o o 0 189 Bibliographie 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 190 Vorbemerkung Dieses kleine Datenhandbuchlein beruht im wesentlichen auf meinem Beitrag zum, Workshop on Indicators of National Development', der in Lausanne im Sommer 1971 gemeinsam vom International Social Science Council und vom European Con- sortium for Political Research unter Leitung von Prof. Stein Rokkan organisiert wurde. Auf dieser Konferenz wurde erstmals versucht, Sozialwissenschaftler aus aller Welt zusammenzubringen, die an historischen Datensammlungen uber langfristige ge- sellschaftliche Entwicklungen arbeiten. Mein damaliger Bericht wurde fur die Ver- oeffentlichung hier nur geringfugig verandert und gestrafft sowie mit einer Einleitung versehen, in der einige allgemeinere Bemerkungen uber die Geschichte und Funktion sozialwissenschaftlicher Datensammlungen gemacht werden.

Wahrend die Zahl der soziologischen VerOffentlichungen hierzulande in den letzten Jahren sprunghaft angestiegen ist, hat der Anteil empirischer Arbeiten kaum zuge- nommen; vielleicht ist er sogar rtickiaufig. Dies gilt vor all em ftir Untersuchungen der Struktur und Entwickiung von Gesellschaften, also flir den Bereich der "empirischen Makrosoziologie". Es gibt allerdings Anzeichen daflir, daB sich der modische Auf- schwung der methodischen Grundlagenprogrammatik, der pauschalen politbkonomi- schen Fundamentalkritik und der vielen ideologiekritischen Subtilitaten zunehmend erschbpft. Es zeigt sich jedenfalls, daB auf eine Fortentwickiung der Soziologie als erfahrungswissenschaftlicher Teildisziplin nicht verzichtet werden kann, will man nicht die wissenschaftliche Diskussion auf politisch-ideologische Bekenntnisse, die Entfaltung der immanenten Logik von Theorien, puristische wissenschaftstheoreti- sche Kritik oder Methodenformalismus beschranken. Ich hoffe sehr, daB die vier Arbeiten, die ich hier anzeiger. kann und die in diesem Jahr im Westdeutschen Verlag erscheinen: - Peter Flora, Modernisierungsforschung: zur empirischen Analyse der gesellschaft- lichen Entwicklung. - Peter Flora, Indikatoren der Modernisierung: ein historisches Datenhandbuch. Walter Milller, Familie, Schule und Beruf: Untersuchungen zur sozialen Mobilitat in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Karl Ulrich Mayer, Ungleichheit und Mobilitat im sozialen BewuBtsein. vom "allgemeinen Leser" und den Fachkollegen als Beitrage zu einer Soziologie aner- kannt werden, die quer zu den genannten Richtungen liegt: als Beitrage zu politisch wichtigen, aber wissenschaftlich spezifischen Problemen, auf dem Stand der interna- tionalen Diskussion und methodischen Entwickiung, technisch versiert, aber in erster Linie auf substantielle Ergebnisse ausgerichtet.