The welfare state has been developed first and in its largest extent in North-Western Europe, in Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden. It is also in these countries where the crisis and financial problems of the welfare state are felt first. The need for restructuring the welfare state is a challenge of a supra-national, European and international scale. The book analyses the different welfare states in Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden with outlooks to Eastern Europe and Japan and examines the proposals for reforming and restructuring the welfare state in...

The present volume seeks to inaugurate a new discussion of two schools of historical thought by social scientists, economists, and phi- losophers in the English language. The tradition of the "Historical and Ethical School of Economics" established by Friedrich List, Wilhelm Roscher, and Gustav Schmollerand the tradition of historism in the hu- manities represented by Wilhelm Dilthey are examined not so much for their own historical interest as for their potential systematic contribu- tion to the contemporary debates on business ethics, economics, sociol- ogy, and philosophy. The book...