PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The overall level of education is increasingly considered to be an important indicator of a country's social creativity and economic efficiency. This paper follows the proposition that the overall arrangement of welfare policy is the main reason for educational outcomes. The typology of welfare state regimes by Esping-Andersen is extended with specific parameters of education policy and applied to three typical countries: Germany as a conservative, Sweden as a social democratic and the USA as a liberal welfare regime. Germany' outcome variables turn out to be only moderately successful. Germany has a medium score on education quality and a low score on education equality. The paper comes to the conclusion that future welfare policy in Germany has to combine social security and education components, if the country wants to improve education quality and equity and to keep a high level of welfare.