Comparison of Welfare States



Tuesday, 15. October 2013 | 14:45 Uhr

Speaker

Josef Schmid

Organisation

University of Tübingen

Reporting

In his presentation, Professor Josef Schmid of the University of Tübingen compared various systems of welfare states. First he addressed the definition of the term ‘welfare state’, which he defined as follows: “The welfare state is an institutionalized form of social security. It guarantees a minimum subsistence allowance for every person, protects against the elementary risks of modern industrial society, and fights the extent of social disparity through redistribution.” His address next dealt with the question: ‘why compare welfare states?’ and the topics of ‘main approaches to the comparison of welfare states’ and ‘key research findings’.
His recommendations as to which country is suited to which persons with respect to the healthcare sector were exciting. For example, a young and healthy person is in very good hands in Switzerland and the contributions are relatively low. On the other hand, in the case of those with family, Germany takes very good care of its inhabitants. And if someone is poor or, paradoxically, also very wealthy, Great Britain is the best place to be.
You can learn more about this theory in the video.

Josef Schmid

Since 2010: Full-time Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Social Science of the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen.

Since April 1998: Professor for Political Economics and Comparative Policy Analysis at the Institute for Political Science, University of Tuebingen.

Since 1989: Research assistant and university lecturer at the Ruhr-University of Bochum, at the chair of Comparative Government and applied Political Science; habilitation about welfare commisison in modern welfare states and social service from a historic-comparative perspective (published Opladen 1996)

Since 1987: Studies in Political Science, Sociology and Administration at the University of Konstanz, Master Degree on “The development of the welfare-state program and practice of bourgeois parties taking the English Conservative Party and the German CDU for examples. Prelude to the German reunification” (1984), PhD on “The CDU. Organizational structures, politics and mechanisms in the federal state” (published Opladen 1990)

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