[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-1606”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“title”:“”,“alt”:“The New York Times”}}]]In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Dartmouth’s Veronika Fuechtner writes that Germany’s unemployment benefits system, which the country overhauled 10 years ago, could prove to be a model for the United States.

The German model, writes Fuechtner, an associate professor of German Studies, “can teach the U.S. something about how the state committing to people’s welfare can affect how people ‘commit’ to their state.”

She continues, “While the German Sozialstaat might have many problems (as Germans will be the first to tell you), lack of civic engagement is not one of them.”

Read the full opinion piece, published 5/6/2013 in The New York Times.