ABSTRACT
A recent publication by the Marburg FEG-group1 is our starting point: We begin from the following thesis: the crisis of employment in the developed capitalist countries since the 70s is a primary condition of the crisis of the welfare states as they were constructed in the “Golden Age” of Fordism after the Second World War. This crisis is closely related to neoliberal strategies, aiming at the reconstruction or “renovation” of state interven tionism. We have been asking if there exists a convergence of national policy patterns in the field of labor markets and welfare regimes. Obvi ously, general problems - like mass unemployment, socio-economic change, world-market pressure, the impact of European integration - exist everywhere. Do the different welfare regimes in Western Europe move into the same direction, and what strategies are applied - what are the constel lations of political and social forces which decide upon this direction?
