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From Safety Net To Trampoline: Labor Market Activation in the Netherlands and Denmark
Author(s) -
Cox Robert Henry
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/0952-1895.00079
Subject(s) - trampoline , unemployment , welfare state , welfare , politics , market regulation , economics , labour economics , citizenship , state (computer science) , active labour market policies , safety net , market economy , economic policy , political science , economic growth , law , algorithm , computer science , operating system
In recent years Denmark and the Netherlands have made dramatic shifts from passive to active labor market policies. Though often portrayed as a necessary response to high levels of structural unemployment, such changes are more than a mere technical adjustment of welfare programs to a changing economic climate. They represent new ideas about the goals of public policy and the social rights of citizenship. This article surveys the politics of labor market policies in the two countries to demonstrate that the recent activation programs reflect a departure from the ideas and goals of the postwar welfare state.