Abstract

Interconnections between sport and the welfare state are by no means obvious. For the most part in European countries the supporting pillars of sport are voluntary associations. As we know from a comparison of sport clubs in various European countries (Heinemann 1999), the variety of organisational arrangements is one of the typical characteristics of sport in Europe. The author asks the following questions: How can interconnections between sports and the welfare state in different European countries be said to exist, despite the fact that the autonomy of organised sports is secured from both sides? In what ways can the tendency toward a "crisis of the welfare state", as observed, or at least alleged, to have occurred in Western industrial states over the past decades, have an impact on sport and under certain circumstances lead to fundamental changes in the basic financial system and organised structure, affecting the relationships with other competing or cooperating suppliers of spotrs activities and even its own "self-image"? Such connecting lines may be elaborated by analyzing the form in which sport and the welfare state are tied together, where and to what extent the objectives and institutional arrangements of sport and welfare state system are linked. Aus der Einleitung (leicht geändert)