scholarly journals Exit Bismarck, Enter Dualism? Assessing Contemporary German Labour Market Policy

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 795-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOCHEN CLASEN ◽  
ALEXANDER GOERNE
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractBetween 2003 and 2005, German labour market policy was subjected to the most far-reaching reform since the 1960s. Some commentators have interpreted the changes introduced as signalling a departure from the traditional ‘Bismarckian’ paradigm in German social policy. For others, the new legislation has contributed and consolidated an ever-more pervasive trend of dualisation within the German welfare state. In this article, we contest both interpretations. First, we demonstrate that traditional social insurance principles remain a dominant element within unemployment protection. Second, we show that German labour market policy is less rather than more segmented today than it was a decade ago.

Corporatism and the Danish Welfare State

1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 73-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Finn Valentin
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
State Interventions

The starting point is the three structure concepts of societal distribution, interest formation and organization formation. Corporatism is defined as a combination of all three, where (a) the primary distribution structure is still capitalist; (b) interest and organization formation do not take place in relation to the primary oppositions of capitalism, but instead are blocked and transformed to concern other divisions; the primary effect is a disorganization of the classes. The article examines whether such corporatist disorganization was produced by Danish state interventions in the 1960s and 1970s within health and social policy, policies for the redistribution of incomes and the labour market policy. The corporative effects of the interventions are discussed on the basis of the Danish class structure with weight on its interest and strength position.

Offene Arbeitsmärkte als Mittel und Ziel einer modernen Sozialpolitik

2010 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen J. Roth
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Constitutional Economics ◽  
Efficient Design ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Factor Markets ◽  
Dualistic Approach

AbstractThe interdependence between labour market policy and social policy can be interpreted in different ways. The dualistic approach sees social policy as a counterpart to labour market policy, especially if the latter is exclusively interpreted as the means for achieving an efficient design of factor markets. By contrast, constitutional economics introduces the concept of a “social policy for the market” by emphasizing the mutual gains that can be reaped if the interdependence between social and labour market policies is properly taken into account. Achieving an efficient design of markets thus requires a corresponding social policy framework. This article reminds of a third perspective: The efficient design of markets is never an end in itself. Overcoming social hardship, however, is a respectable goal. The author first develops a concept of social policy that draws on market-based processes to achieve its goals before applying this concept to the problem of structural long-term unemployment.

No longer ‘fit for purpose’? Consolidation and catch-up in Irish labour market policy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Dukelow
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Recent Change ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
Employment Services ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Benefit System

This chapter discusses recent change to Irish labour market policy which, it argues, has been guided by the idea that Ireland’s policy regime prior to the 2008 crisis was no longer ‘fit for purpose’ being overly focused on a passive benefit system and a similarly passive approach to activation. The chapter maps three key changes related to consolidation and catch-up. First, retrenchment is further eroding the already weak social insurance underpinnings of the system. Second, existing activation programmes which focused heavily on direct job creation have been somewhat curtailed; new more market oriented programmes have been introduced and compulsion has been stregthened. Third, major institutional re-design is leading to greater integration of the benefit system with employment services and a turn towards privatisation and marketisation. By assessing these changes against recent labour market dynamics the chapter also considers how they are contributing to a more precarious labour market regime post-crisis.

Dualising the Swedish model: insiders and outsiders and labour market policy reform in Sweden: an overview

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Bo Davidsson
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Social Insurance System ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
Fiscal Austerity

For many decades it seemed that the Swedish model was immune to change. Welfare scholars saw in Sweden a paragon of an equal society based on a generous welfare state that had withstood the pressures of globalisation. While it is true that some welfare institutions are still intact, that is no longer the case in labour market policy. This cannot be explained by fiscal austerity imposed by the EU; rather it was the economic crisis in the early 1990s that first set reforms in motion. This chapter traces labour market reforms in Sweden over the past two decades. The pattern suggested here is one in which labour market outsiders have borne the brunt of reforms. This can be seen in the manner in which labour market flexibility was introduced, the fact that many of the unemployed now stand outside the social insurance system, in the declining value of social assistance benefits and perhaps most strikingly in the radical cuts to spending on active labour market policy.

The Dutch model: An Obvious Candidate for the ‘Third Way’?

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Hemerijck ◽  
Jelle Visser
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Tightly Coupled

While the progressive European politicians are on the lookout for a new model of ‘third way’ capitalism with a human face, after the (temporary?) defeat of the Swedish, Dutch welfare state reform occupies a prominent place in many commentaries.Although it attracted only international attention in the mid- 1990s, the ‘Dutch miracle’ has its basis in policy changes in the early 1980s. For a full explanation of the Dutch experience we must go back at least fifteen years, and study the combination of problem loads, power shifts, institutions, politics and ideas, in three ‘tightly coupled’ policy domains of the Dutch welfare state: industrial relations, social security, and labour market policy. The return to wage moderation took place in the early followed by a series of reforms in the systems of social security in the late 1980s and early 1990s. From the mid-1990s, finally, the adoption of an active labour market policy stance, in order to enhance overall efficiency and create a new domestic balance between wages and social benefits, gained political currency. In this article we present a stylised narrative of these policy changes—what happened, how it happened and what it meant. We demonstrate that these three policy shifts, although embedded in different corporate actors, were interrelated; they created the conditions and the demand for one another, and neither of these policies could have been successful on its own.

scholarly journals Comparative Social Policy Analysis and Active Labour Market Policy: Putting Quality before Quantity

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOCHEN CLASEN ◽  
DANIEL CLEGG ◽  
ALEXANDER GOERNE
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Central Area ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
Dimensions Of Variation

AbstractIn the past decade, active labour market policy (ALMP) has become a major topic in comparative social policy analysis, with scholars exploiting cross-national variation to seek to identify the determinants of policy development in this central area of the ‘new welfare state’. In this paper, we argue that better integration of this policy field into social policy scholarship requires rather more critical engagement with considerable methodological, conceptual and theoretical challenges in order to analyse these policies comparatively. Most fundamentally, rather more reflection is needed on what the substantially relevant dimensions of variation in ALMP from a social policy perspective actually are, as well as enhanced efforts to ensure that it is those that are being analysed and compared.

Ethische Perspektiven und Aufgaben einer europäischen Arbeitsmarktpolitik für die Zukunft

1994 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-266
Author(s):  
Theodor Strohm
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Job Creation ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Europe

Abstract Besides the economical criteria of convergence, which have been precisely laid down in the EC-treaties, especially in the treaties of Maastricht, the integration of labour markets is an explicit aim of the European Union. Considering that approx. 19 million employees within the EC are not gainfully employed, a common and well-aimed labour market policy seems to be one of the major responsibilities of European economical and social policy. The instruments of job creation and preservation in Germany are being compared with the aims of the EC-comission, also experiences of other countries are being involved. The Christian Churches in Europe are committed to get involved in tackling unemployment and its human-destructing effects. The Social Chamber of the EKD has made continuous proposals. At present, it is working on continuing its previous memorandums on unemployment. With this, also the memorandum ))Responsibility for a Social Europe« (1992) is being continued and put into concrete terms.

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