The local dimension of employment-related welfare policy in Germany, England and Sweden

Abstract

The link between work and welfare is a key pathway of modern welfare state development in Western Europe. National governments face a constant balancing act between the welfare expectations of the labour forces and the labour market liberalisation demands of the business communities. Facilitating the transit from welfare into employment has therefore become an important tool for the British, German and Swedish governments, providing labour as and when needed while keeping welfare expenditure in check. However, the approaches to organising active labour market policies are quite different, notably with regard to the territorial dimension. Although labour markets are quite diverse in all three cases, the role of local authorities, local agencies and local labour market actors from the private and voluntary sector are generally under-developed and apparently under-appreciated, but in different ways and for different reasons. The article compares current employment-related welfare provisions and approaches to develop active labour market policies in the three countries, and concludes that while certain structural and procedural similarities exist, the basic political priorities and actual support and services provided remain very far apart.

Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Politics, History and International Relations
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Aston Centre for Europe
Event Title: Political Economy in an Age of Great Uncertainty
Event Type: Other
Event Location: University of Sheffield
Event Dates: 2016-07-04 - 2016-07-06
Uncontrolled Keywords: welfare localization,local labour markets,UK,Sweden,Germany
Last Modified: 08 Dec 2023 13:03
Date Deposited: 22 Dec 2016 09:40
PURE Output Type: Paper
Published Date: 2016-07-04
Authors: Mathias, Jörg (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-4298-1938)

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