State Transformations in Oecd Countries ― Dimensions, Driving Forces, and Trajectories

The democratic nation state of the post-war era has undergone major transformations since the 1970s, and political authority has been both internationalized and privatized. The thirteen chapters of this edited collection deal with major transformations of governance arrangements and state responsibilities in the countries of the OECD world. A unified conceptual and explanatory framework is used to describe trajectories of state change, to explain the internationalization or privatization of responsibilities in the resource, law, legitimacy and welfare dimensions of the democratic nation state, and to probe the state's role in the today's post-national constellation of political authority. As the contributions show, an unravelling of state authority has indeed occurred, but the state nevertheless continues to play a key role in emerging governance arrangements. Hence it is not merely a 'victim' of globalization and other driving forces of change.

Heinz Rothgang is Professor of Heath Economics and Director of the Division for Health Economics, Health Policy and Outcomes Research at the Centre for Social Policy Research, University of Bremen, Germany. His research focuses on healthcare systems, long-term care insurance and welfare economics. Publications include The State and Healthcare: Comparing OECD Countries (Palgrave 2010, with Mirella Cacace, Simone Grimmeisen, Lorraine Frisina, Achim Schmid and Claus Wendt).

Steffen Schneider is Research Associate at the TranState Research Centre and the Department of Political Science, University of Bremen, Germany. His research interests are in comparative government and policy analysis. Publications include Democracy's Deep Roots: Why the Nation State Remains Legitimate (Palgrave 2010, with Achim Hurrelmann, Zuzana Krell-Laluhova, Frank Nullmeier and Achim Wiesner).