ABSTRACT
The social protection systems of West Central European countries have their origins in the social reforms of Otto von Bismarck in Imperial Germany in the 1880s. This chapter discusses the forces behind the historical development of these social protection systems, the particular aims and objectives of social policy, and how these aims are promoted through their common institutional features. It explores how in the last quarter of the twentieth century these design features made social protection reform simultaneously particularly pressing and unusually difficult. High expenditure reflects the solidly institutionalised commitment in the countries of West Central Europe to using collective mechanisms to protect citizens against social risks. As an institutional model, the welfare system of West Central European countries has proved remarkably resilient, largely outliving the political and religious forces that supported the objectives it was designed to realise.
