The issue of social welfare and individual responsibility has become a topic of international public debate in recent years as politicians around the world now question the legitimacy of state-funded welfare systems. The authors of this book debate the ethical merits of individual versus collective responsibility for welfare. David Schmidtz argues that social welfare policy should prepare people for responsible adulthood rather than try to make that unnecessary. Robert Goodin argues against the individualization of welfare policy and expounds the virtues of collective responsibility.

In this book Itai Sened provides an original analysis of the political institutions that protect property and individual rights. He argues that the origin of these rights resides in political institutions, and not in any set of moral principles. Individual rights are said to derive from a "social contract" that evolves through a political process in which governments grant and protect rights in return for political and economic support.

Concerned with key debates in contemporary political theory, topics discussed in this text include: the relationship between history and theory; utilitarianism and rational choice; republicanism; and problems of difference, multiculturalism and postcolonial theory. Debates in current legal theory and international politics are considered along with issues in hermaneutics, feminism, communitarianism and poststructuralism. The essays reflect the state of political theory today, but also contemplte the state of the discipline more broadly.

The Real Worlds of Welfare Capitalism traces how individuals fare over time in each of the three principal types of welfare state. Through unique studies of Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, tracking individuals' socio-economic fate over ten years, the authors explore issues of economic growth and efficiency, of poverty and inequality, of social integration and social autonomy. The authors argue that the social democratic welfare regime of the Netherlands outperforms the corporatist German regime and the liberal US regime across all these social and economic objectives.

The Real Worlds of Welfare Capitalism traces how individuals fare over time in each of the three principal types of welfare state. Through unique studies of Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, tracking individuals' socio-economic fate over ten years, the authors explore issues of economic growth and efficiency, of poverty and inequality, of social integration and social autonomy. The authors argue that the social democratic welfare regime of the Netherlands outperforms the corporatist German regime and the liberal US regime across all these social and economic objectives.

This book examines environmental policy-making through research into individuals' reaction to environmental issues. It is often assumed that people are reluctant to contribute to environmental protection, because they do not see it as in their interests. The authors argue that self-interest is just one of a number of motives which affect people's choices, and that voluntary environmental polices are thus more likely to succeed than might be expected. They base their arguments on detailed surveys of public opinion.

The modern world is dominated by complex organizations. In this book Mark Bovens analyzes the questions associated with the search for responsiblity within such organizations. In organizations with many people contributing in many different ways, how can we determine who is accountable for organizational behavior? How do we define responsible behavior within organizations? Can different notions of responsibility prevent abuses? His analysis is multidisciplinary, combining law, social science, ethics, and organizational design, and provides a number of suggestions for institutional reform.

Problems of institutional design and redesign, structuring and restructuring, acquired particular poignancy through recent developments from eastern Europe to southern Africa. At the same time, scholars in each of several disciplines--political science, sociology, history and philosophy--have increasingly come to appreciate the important independent role that is, and should be, played by institutional factors in social life. In this volume, disparate theories of institutional design given by each of those several disciplines are synthesized and their peculiar power illustrated.

This book offers a novel approach to the analysis of democracy, and an application of that approach to a variety of democratic institutions, including elections, representation, political parties and the separation of powers. Standard economic approaches to politics concentrate on the design of institutions and the role of individuals motivated by self-interest. The authors incorporate a broader view of political motivation, assuming individuals are moral as well as rational, and provide a wide-ranging discussion of the design of democratic institutions.

Policy-Making and Diversity in Europe examines the European Union and its policy-making processes. In particular, it asks how an institution that is so riddled with veto points manages to be such an active policy maker. Heritier argues that the diversity of actors' interests and the need for consensus in European institutions would almost inevitably lead to deadlock, were it not for the existence of creative informal strategies and policy-making patterns. Termed by the author "subterfuge," these strategies prevent political impasses and "make Europe work."