„Wohlfahrtsstaat und Infrastruktur – das Soziale organisieren“

The German welfare state organizes social policy traditionally in two distinct ways. On the one hand, work-related and state-organized social security schemes protect the working population and their families from typical social risks during the life course. On the other hand, means-tested welfare benefits and individualized social services support individuals outside the labor market. Due to socioeconomic change, this complementary construction of the welfare state is under increasing pressure: declining economic growth rates, increasing unemployment rates, and the aging population lead to expanding costs for the welfare state, whereas funding for social policy shrinks. Social security benefits as well as welfare benefits were adapted accordingly in terms of benefit reductions but also by readjusting the normative aims of the German welfare state. The new paradigms of activation, self-responsibility, and autonomy can be found in all social programs. Thus, the basic question is whether the reformed welfare state as a whole is still able to deal with the social problems at hand. From a holistic point of view, it is argued that the fragmentation of the social protection system should be overcome in order to develop an integrated perspective of how to organize social policy.