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Setting the New U.S. Climate and Clean Energy Agenda May 14, 2013

On Defense, France Bites the Bullet, But Avoids Strategic Insolvency May 7, 2013

Iceland’s Recovery Saga Presents Opportunities for Brussels, Washington—and Beijing May 6, 2013

Which Way Forward for Europe’s Hybrid Regimes? May 2, 2013

Events
Andrew Light Speaker Tour in Europe May 14, 2013 / Berlin, Germany; Brussels, Belgium

GMF Senior Fellow Andrew Light participated in a speaking tour in Europe to discuss opportunities for transatlantic cooperation on climate and energy policy in the second Obama administration.

Audio
Deal Between Kosovo, Serbia is a European Solution to a European Problem May 13, 2013

In this podcast, GMF Vice President of Programs Ivan Vejvoda discusses last month's historic agreement to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Andrew Small on China’s Influence in the Middle East Peace Process May 10, 2013

Anchor Elaine Reyes speaks with Andrew Small, Transatlantic Fellow of the Asia Program for the German Marshall Fund, about Beijing's potential role in brokering peace between Israel and Palestine

Press Release

Agents of the Welfare State August 29, 2007

Related Issues: Democracy & Civil Society
Related Regions: European Union / North America
How Caseworkers Respond to Need in the United States, Germany, and Sweden

Christopher J. Jewell, who used a GMF grant to go on a 3-country comparison tour, has just released his book, Agents of the Welfare State, which examines how caseworkers repond to need in the United States, Germany, and Sweden.

Have globalization pressures and neoliberal ideas led to convergence in how countries respond to welfare claimants?  Through ethnographic case studies of social assistance offices in the United States, Germany and Sweden, Agents of the Welfare State demonstrates persistent diversity in how states structure needs assessment and activation efforts, contrasting a bureaucratic, flat-grant system in the U.S., with German and Swedish programs in which individualized assessment is a core organizational task.  It shows how responsiveness in these European programs is institutionalized through nationally distinct legal foundations, professional traditions, and resource networks, while revealing how resource scarcities threaten to erode these capabilities.

For more information on purchasing the book, please visit the publisher's website below:
Palgrave-Macmillan, Agents of the Welfare State