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This work employs a sophisticated and original theoretical approach to compare welfare states and political-economic adjustment in Germany and France. Mark Vail examines how and why institutional change takes place and what factors characterize economic evolution when moving from times of prosperity to more austere periods and back again. These respective evolutions involve interrelated changes in social and economic policies and are characterized by political relationships that are continuously renegotiated--often in unpredictable ways. Covering the 1970s to the present, Vail analyzes social and economic reforms, including labor-policy, social-insurance, and antipoverty programs. He focuses on the tactics and actions of key political players and demolishes the stagnation argument that suggests that France and Germany have largely frozen political economies incapable of reform. The result is a compelling reconceptualization of change in both the welfare state and the broader political economy during an age of globalization

This work employs a sophisticated and original theoretical approach to compare welfare states and political-economic adjustment in Germany and France. Mark Vail examines how and why institutional change takes place and what factors characterize economic evolution when moving from times of prosperity to more austere periods and back again. These respective evolutions involve interrelated changes in social and economic policies and are characterized by political relationships that are continuously renegotiated--often in unpredictable ways. Covering the 1970s to the present, Vail analyzes social and economic reforms, including labor-policy, social-insurance, and antipoverty programs. He focuses on the tactics and actions of key political players and demolishes the stagnation argument that suggests that France and Germany have largely frozen political economies incapable of reform. The result is a compelling reconceptualization of change in both the welfare state and the broader political economy during an age of globalization.

This paper examines the relationship among economic context, political institutions, and the political dynamics of adjustment within national models of capitalism through an analysis of recent labor-market reform in France and Germany. It argues that a climate of economic austerity since the 1970s, combined with the political legacies of earlier policy-making models and their failure to confront the challenges of slow economic growth and high rates of unemployment, have led to qualitative shifts in the incentives facing government officials and key interest groups. These shifts have produced new patterns of politics - "competitive interventionismʺ in France and "conflictual corporatismʺ in Germany - within generally stable formal institutional configurations. The paper explores the implications of the French and German experience for scholarly understandings of policy making in advanced industrial societies in a climate of economic austerity and how it differs from policy making under conditions of prosperity. In light of this analysis, it calls for a rethinking of prevailing conceptions of the relationship between formal institutional structures and the dynamics of bargaining and statesociety relations across varying economic and historical contexts.

Abstract
This article analyzes economic policy debates and parties' policy positions during the 2021 Bundestag election campaign, with an emphasis on shifting conceptions of the economic role of the state. Focusing on fiscal and labor market policy, it argues that the election campaign and the commitments of the new Ampel coalition reflect increasing support for more robust state involvement in the economy. It argues further that these shifts in elite discourse demonstrate a continuing rethinking of Germany's economic model and the need to rebalance the relationship between public authority and the decentralized model of social organization and policy responsibility central to German liberalism.

Prime Minister David Cameron's ambivalence about Britain's role in the European Union stems from dilemmas within his Conservative Party. Since the nineteenth century, British Conservatism had represented a comfortable synthesis of a soft Burkean traditionalism and class-based paternalism with an effort to expand the party's appeal to the working class. Thatcher's aggressive neoliberal challenge to this tradition never truly displaced the older paternalistic sense of noblesse oblige or the preference for societal consensus and incremental change. Instead, the two elements came into an uneasy coexistence that has informed Tory ambivalence about the EU. This article argues that Cameron's gradual distancing of Britain from the EU has paralleled his championing of economic austerity at home. It argues further that Cameron's policy-making response to the post-2007 economic downturn and European debt crisis can best be understood as a reflection of unresolved tensions within British Conservative thought. Adapted from the source document.

This article argues that distinctive liberal traditions shaped France and Germany's Keynesian policy responses to the post-2007 economic crisis. In France, 'statist liberalism' privileges an activist state that favors macroeconomic intervention and investment. German 'corporate liberalism,' by contrast, is more pluralist and emphasizes the powers and responsibilities of social and economic groups, who are viewed as the fundamental components of the social order. The article argues that these traditions shaped elite interpretations of the crisis and played central roles in defining policy trajectories. They informed a modest French response focused on macroeconomic stimulus that relied on existing income support and a larger German effort centered on a microeconomic strategy of group subsidization. It concludes that these outcomes are inconsistent with traditional institutional accounts and highlights the importance of research on the role of ideas in shaping national responses to economic crises. Adapted from the source document.

This article argues that distinctive liberal traditions shaped France and Germany's Keynesian policy responses to the post‐2007 economic crisis. In France, "statist liberalism" privileges an activist state that favors macroeconomic intervention and investment. German "corporate liberalism," by contrast, is more pluralist and emphasizes the powers and responsibilities of social and economic groups, who are viewed as the fundamental components of the social order. The article argues that these traditions shaped elite interpretations of the crisis and played central roles in defining policy trajectories. They informed a modest French response focused on macroeconomic stimulus that relied on existing income support and a larger German effort centered on a microeconomic strategy of group subsidization. It concludes that these outcomes are inconsistent with traditional institutional accounts and highlights the importance of research on the role of ideas in shaping national responses to economic crises.