Poverty, increased inequality, and social exclusion are back on the political agenda in Western Europe, not only as a consequence of the Great Recession of 2008, but also because of a seemingly structural trend towards increased inequality in advanced industrial societies that has persisted since the 1970s. How can we explain this increase in inequalities? Policies in labor markets, social policy, and political representation are strongly linked in the creation, widening, and deepening of insider-outsider divides-a process known as dualization. While it is certainly not the only driver of increasing inequality, the encompassing nature of its development across multiple domains makes dualization one of the most important current trends affecting developed societies. However, the extent and forms of dualization vary greatly across countries. The comparative perspective of this book provides insights into why Nordic countries witness lower levels of insider-outsider divides, whereas in continental, liberal and southern welfare states, they are more likely to constitute a core characteristic of the political economy. Most importantly, the comparisons presented in this book point to the crucial importance of politics and political choice in driving and shaping the social outcomes of deindustrialization. While increased structural labor market divides can be found across all countries, governments have a strong responsibility in shaping the distributive consequences of these labor market changes. Insider-outsider divides are not a straightforward consequence of deindustrialization, but rather the result of political choice. A landmark publication, this volume is geared for faculty and graduate students of economics, political science, social policy, and sociology, as well as policymakers concerned with increasing inequality in a period of deep economic and social crisis.

Exacerbated by the Great Recession, youth transitions to employment and adulthood have become increasingly protracted, precarious, and differentiated by gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Youth Labor in Transition examines young people's integration into employment, alongside the decisions and consequences of migrating to find work and later returning home. The authors identify key policy challenges for the future related to NEETS, overeducation, self-employment, and ethnic differences in outcomes. This illustrates the need to encompass a wider understanding of youth employment and job insecurity by including an analysis of economic production and how it relates to social reproduction of labor if policy intervention is to be effective. The mapping and extensive analysis in this book are the result of a 31/2-year, European Union-funded research project (Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe, or STYLE; http://www.style-research.eu) coordinated by Jacqueline O'Reilly. With an overall budget of just under 5 million euros and involving 25 research partners; an international advisory network and local advisory boards of employers, unions, and policymakers; and non-governmental organizations from more than 20 European countries, STYLE is one of the largest European Commission-funded research projects to exist on this topic. Consequently, this book will appeal to an array of audiences, including academic and policy researchers in sociology, political science, economics, management studies, and more particular labor market and social policy; policy communities; and bachelor's- and master's-level students in courses on European studies or any of the aforementioned subject areas.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and select open access locations. During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, social policy was one of the most important strategies used by governments to help mitigate the crisis. European Social Policy and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges to National Welfare and EU Policy provides an encompassing and longer-term analysis of the social policy responses of European countries, as well as the European Union (EU), to the challenges of the pandemic. The book asks in which direction the European welfare states, on the one hand, and EU social policy, on the other, are developing as a result of the pandemic with respect to polity, politics, and policy instruments. European Social Policy and the COVID-19 Pandemic addresses several questions, such as what medium- and long-term effects will the current social policy crisis responses have on the different welfare states? Will the partly improvised, partly only temporary but in every respect diverse and often unprecedented measures lead to novel reform trajectories or even a new welfare state model? What new forms of international cooperation and conflict resolution mechanisms may arise within the social policy domain of the EU? The questions raised not only concern the future of welfare states in Europe but also EU-level social-policy making and European integration in general. The chapters—written by experts on law, political science, social policy, and sociology—build on various methodological backgrounds and encompass single case studies, comparative policy analyses, and discourse-analytical perspectives.

Keine sozialwissenschaftliche Arbeit ist ohne die Kooperation von Freun den, Wissenschaftlem, Bibliothekaren und Archivaren moglich; ihnen al len gilt mein Dank. Besonders zu danken habe ich Heem Prof. Dr.Dieter Grosser, der dieses Dissertationsprojekt an seinem Lehrstuhl am Geschwi ster-Scholl-Institut in Munchen ermoglicht hat. Nicht minderer Dank gilt Heem PO Dr. Hartmut Keil vom Amerika-Institut der Ludwig-Maximi lians-Universitat flir seine kritischen Anregungen. Toshio Tatara, Leiter der Forschungsabteilung bei der American Public Welfare Association, stand mir wahrend meiner Forschungsaufenthalte in den USA stets als kritischer Gesprachspartner zur Verfligung. Femer ermoglichte er es mir, in seiner Abteilung ein dreimonatiges Praktikum zu absolvieren, das mir bei der Recherche flir die vorliegende Dissertation sehr hilfreich war. Bard Shollenberger -ebenfalls von der American Public Welfare Asso ciation -danke ich herzlich flir die Zurverfiigungstellung des von ihm ge sammelten reichbaltigen Quellenmaterials sowie fur seine Gastfreund schaft. Des weiteren richtet sich mein Dank an Robert Myers, Robert Carleson und Ron Haskins, die mir Teile ihrer personlichen Unterlagen flir diese Arbeit zuganglich machten. Pruda L. Lood danke ich fur den Zugang zu der Ronald Reagan Collection in den Archiven der Hoover lnstitution."

Die Sozial- und Wirtschaftspolitik der rot-grunen Bundesregierung ist ein in der OEffentlichkeit vieldiskutiertes, in der Forschung jedoch bislang kaum untersuchtes Thema. Der vorliegende Sammelband legt eine empirische Bestandsaufnahme der Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik nach funfjahriger rot-gruner Regierungszeit vor. Gefragt wird nach Kontinuitat und Wandel in Programmatik und umgesetzten Massnahmen in der Sozial- und Wirtschaftspolitik von Rot-Grun im Vergleich zur Regierung Kohl. Der Band teilt sich in drei Teile: Im ersten Teil werden theoretisch die Dimension von Kontinuitat und Wandel sowie die Rahmenbedingungen bestimmt. Des Weiteren wird ein UEberblick der sozial-demokratischen (und grunen) Programmdebatten gegeben. Die Autorinnen und Autoren des zweiten Teils analysieren die unterschiedlichen Politikbereiche. Der dritte Teil wendet sich schliesslich "neuen" Akteuren und Entscheidungsmustern jenseits der formalen politischen Institutionen in der Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik zu.