ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book demonstrates the power resources and the cognitive capacity of the state which ultimately explain the scope, content and timing of institutional change of a social policy regime. It has put forward an analytical grid for the study of regime change in labor market policy (LMP) and analyzed in detail changes in the social rights and duties as well as the governance and financing arrangements of Germany's welfare work regime. Many of the classical institutionalist's assumptions on the institutional resilience of the Bismarckian welfare state and the alleged immobility of the German politico-administrative system seemed to have failed the test of time. Germany's party system displayed much more conflict in welfare state issues, not least within both grand parties, than is commonly realized.
