This book presents an in-depth analysis of social policy reactions to international economic shocks in four different welfare states, over a 40-year period. It reveals how expansion and retrenchment are shaped by domestic politics and existing welfare state institutions.

By exploring how financial, legal and wider socio-economic systems can accelerate or decelerate the harmonization in financial markets, this book connects issues both of contemporary political science and accounting research.

The EU and Immigration Policies: Cracks in the Walls of Fortress Europe? explores how and why the EU and its member states define immigration policies. A comparison of EU negotiations on five EU immigration directives reveals interests of actors in EU integration and whether common policies aim at a restriction or expansion of immigration to the EU.
The findings of the study suggest that some legal migration policies deviate to a certain extent from increased restrictions. Some member states were required to adapt their national laws to a more expansive EU policy. EU immigration policies...

Education policy is a core element of the state's sovereignty and autonomy. This book analyzes the rise of the western education state and its limits in times of transition from western to non-western globalization and of waning newspaper interest in France, Germany, the UK and the US.

This book fills a significant lacuna in our understanding of the refugee crisis by analyzing the dynamics that lie behind fifteen years of asylum policies in the European Union.

This book investigates and discusses the phenomenon of internationalization of education policy and its consequences for national policymaking processes. By comparing educational outcomes and actors' reactions in different countries, it provides detailed insights into a highly contested policy field.

What are the principal drivers of recent higher education reforms? This study investigates whether the soft governance mechanism of transnational communication has evoked cross-national policy harmonization. Results suggest that the Bologna Process has triggered substantial policy harmonization beyond general policy convergence.

Based on a unified explanatory framework, this edited collection offers explanations for major transformations of the democratic nation state since the 1970s in the countries of the OECD world.

This book explores the extent to which a transformation of public employment regimes has taken place in four Western countries, and the factors influencing the pathways of reform. It demonstrates how public employment regimes have unravelled in different domains of public service, contesting the idea that the state remains a 'model' employer.

In a dispute, governments weigh up their options when selecting between various dispute settlement mechanisms. By scrutinising the interaction of institutional design with state interests, this book analyses why particular forums are selected in maritime boundary disputes.