Accounts of institutional change and categorization conventionally assume that high‐status
change agents can impose change, even to stable category systems, which lower‐status …

The interplay between organizational structure and political behaviour is one of the focal
points of political science. How and to what extent do existing organizational structures …

Since the 1970s small states seem to have had all the problems of big states and then some.
Most importantly, that which had distinguished them most as a group in the early postwar …

Purpose–This paper aims to explore activation policy as a condensate for new forms of
governance in respect of welfare institutions and in relation to welfare subjects. It asks how …

This article provides an account of institutional transformation, the scope of which is greater
than incremental adaptation but less than paradigmatic change. It highlights the role in …

Although new institutionalism has long been criticised for presenting overly static accounts
of social reality, that critique is becoming increasingly unwarranted. In recent years …

This paper investigates the conditions under which political framing can render welfare
restructuring more palatable. I start by asking two research questions. First, what are the …

The status quo defence of organized interests and the reform unwillingness of public opinion
are seen as the main reasons why welfare states persist. Building upon these two …

In this paper we compare the Hartz reforms in Germany with three other major labor market
activation reforms carried out by center-left governments. Two of the cases, Britain and …

This chapter aims to explain significant policy change in the context of highly change-
resistant welfare states. Dominant institutional theories of welfare state politics predict that …