Comparative welfare state research in a bind?

Comparative welfare state research is inter-disciplinary par excellence!Relative geographical proximity to objects of scientific inquiry, however, invoked subtlydiverse traditions of research on EU welfare states on both sides of the Atlantic. Thisarticle surveys the rise of social science institutionalism to paradigmatic hegemony inthe field of comparative welfare state research since the late 1980s, while highlightingthe European twist to welfare state research in comparison to American approach on the same topic. What stands out for the EU context is that, since the 1990s, a numberof European welfare scholars engaged with EU institutions and national governmentsin social investment agenda-setting. Academically, American research maintained theupper hand on theory and methods. Open institutionalism in empirical research (andpolicy advice) continues to prove indispensable to effectively exploring and explainingtransformative two-level European social policy change over the past two decades.However, despite a robust empirical research track record, welfare state open institutionalismhas recently had to face a revitalized behavioralist counter-revolution inboth sociology and political science. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, andits associated strong comeback of the competent state as a core political agent, isseemingly giving open institutionalism a new lease in academia.