Introduction: Farewell to Bismarck Or Moving Forward Back to Bismarck? Transformations of the German Welfare State (Otto Von Bismarck) (Essay‪)‬

1. General perspectives of this issue A couple of years ago, drawing on recent pension reforms, we described the German welfare state as being in a state of transition towards an "uncertain something else" (Lamping and Rub 2004). We argued that the German welfare state is beginning to lose its distinctive features as a conservative type of welfare state (knowing that Esping-Andersen used the word "conservative" as a term of political conflict as well as an analytical category, Esping-Andersen 1990). We argued that the German welfare state, and perhaps all those in Europe, will lose their distinct character as subtypes of the three (or many more) "worlds of welfare". While denying any kind of convergence towards a new or common welfare state model, we hypothesized that there will be a new type of welfare state, a recombinant welfare state pragmatically combining elements of the three "worlds of welfare" and adding new variations within each policy and within each type of welfare state. Following on from that, welfare statehood seems to be in a new era of hybridization (cf. Schubert et al. (eds.) 2009). Therefore, it comes as no surprise that policy change within welfare states appears to be rather polymorphic, along with the overall picture of the paths pursued by welfare states in the 21st century. The contributions to this issue of German Policy Studies support this impression. Undoubtedly, this new era of hybridization appears to cause great confusion in the eyes of those trying to work out ideal types. The welfare state policies are ambivalent and ambiguous because politics is ambivalent and ambiguous: political decisions often do not follow clear political objectives (due to veto players, the need to make compromises, etc.), and neither does social policy. Despite this ambivalence and ambiguity, some tendencies are visible.