It has been claimed by politicians as well as researchers that economic openness poses a threat to the welfare state. This article investigates whether there is such a threat. Based on the literature four different hypotheses are distinguished; economic openness is negatively, positively, curvilinear or not related to the welfare state. The first and the third hypothesis state that economic openness does threaten the welfare state, whereas the other two hypotheses argue that this is not the case. The empirical studies investigating the relationship between economic openness and the welfare state are systematically reviewed in this article. The analysis shows that economic openness does not threaten the welfare state.

The application to animals of biotechnological techniques raises moral dilemmas and requires collective agreements. Under what circumstances, for example, are applications permissible? The technological and ethical complexity of biotechnology makes it difficult to arrive at such agreements. With the recent Animal Biotechnology Act, the Dutch Minister of Agriculture has created an arrangement that should facilitate social learning. Did the arrangement work out as planned? This evaluation study demonstrates that very little substantive learning has taken place: positions have become more rigid and antagonists continue to contest one another in a legal discourse. The legalization has hindered learning processes but presents the opportunity for a polarized debate to be conducted within the same institutional framework.

The degree to which individuals accept to face risks appears to be declining. Therefore, individuals put pressure on the government to take measures to reduce risks. The risk society tends to be associated with an instrumental view on criminal law, i.e. risk reduction is considered the main goal of criminal law. In this article factors that may cause a reduction in risk acceptance are investigated. Moreover, implications in the field of civil and administrative law are discucced.

Although long recognized as beneficial, a global language has not come to fruition despite considerable past efforts. A major reason is that many policy makers and citizens fear that such a universal language would undermine the particularistic, constituting primary languages of local and national communities. This dilemma can be greatly diminished by a two tier approach, in which efforts to protect the primary language will be intensified but all the nations involved would agree to use the same second language as the global one. Although theoretically the UN or some other such body could choose such a language, in effect English is increasingly occupying this position. However, policies that are in place slow down the development of a global language, often based on the mistaken assumption that people can readily gain fluency in several languages.

Horizontal governance arrangements potentially conflict with the very principles of representative democracy and, likewise, with the existing political institutions. This conflict manifests itself in the interaction between representatives and the executive power: although the former have the formal power, the latter participates in horizontal networks and therefore has the resources that are necessary to form good policy. This erodes the power position of representatives. Frame work setting is commonly suggested as an arrangement for representatives to enhance their grip on policy processes in network-settings. The authors of this contribution examine the effects of frame setting as coupling mechanism between horizontal networks and vertical politics in six policy processes in a Dutch Province. Based on both theory and research findings they redefine the concept of framework setting in order to make it more attuned to the complex, interdependent and dynamic nature of policy-making in networks.