Effects of Federalism on Current Welfare State Reforms in Canada and Germany

This project will focus on most recent effects of federal structures on selected social reforms. The leading question of this project will be: How do federal systems prevent a contra-productive competition of social systems? The validity of selected hypotheses will be tested in selected recent social reforms in two countries, Canada and Germany. Social policy is a diverse policy field. The project will focus on selected income security programs, since retrenchment in these transfer policies is easier to assess compared to services.