Gewalt, Armut und Ignoranz

Violence, poverty, and ignorance have been the three great scourges of humanity that led societies to establish and sustain states. Yet public and private contributions to the fight against them remain strikingly variable both across nations and over time. Frieder Wolf analyzes the determinants and consequences of this variation regarding six specific problems: asylum, civil protection, pensions, biodiversity, education, and R&D. Each comparative empirical study points a special focus on Germany and offers reform proposal regarding this case, especially its federal arrangements. All in all, skepticism prevails regarding all too sweeping stances on state-society relations in general, but greater optimism is due pertaining to distinct area-specific divisions of labour.