The first part of this book deals with the translation of modernisation processes and changing patterns of citizenship into the politics and practice of health care. What are the drivers and key strategies of modernisation? What key areas and ‘switchboards’ of social change can we identify? What role do changing regulatory frameworks play? What dynamics are released by these processes, and how can the latter be determined empirically with respect to Germany? These are the questions addressed in the following three chapters. Restructuring of health care is an international phenomenon. However, the uniform rhetoric of global debates on reform clashes head on with the diversity of welfare states. The aim of Part I is to map the changes on levels of policy, structure and culture to better understand the dynamics of global models and national restructuring (research design step II, see Figure i.1). Changes in institutional regulation and health policy, in the organisation of care and within the professions serve as rough categories to draw a more comprehensive map of modernisation processes and the dynamics involved. In addition, the various forms of management and control of providers are taken into account, where new patterns of medical governance are manifest in frontline changes.