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New governance and decentralisation in employment policy

New governance and decentralisation in employment policy
New governance and decentralisation in employment policy
When thinking about the traditional boundaries of the welfare state, particularly of labour and employment policies, we tend to place them within the boundaries of the nation-state. However, with contemporary processes of European economic integration and devolution of competences to sub-national entities, our understanding of the spatial configuration of the welfare state has been challenged. These developments are also partially related to 'new governance' patterns in social policy. The authors explore the 'downward' movement of employment and labour market policies (LMP) in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy and explore cross-national differences regarding the characteristics and degree of decentralisation. The paper finds that decentralisation in Germany and the UK is mainly related to the 'activation' and 'employability' agenda, as well as a broader trend of public management reform whilst in Italy a more general restructuring of the state is the main motor of LMP decentralisation. In addition, we see private actors at the local level gaining an important role in the provision and management of this policy area (i.e., de-concentration) in the three countries. Nonetheless, even if we observe this cross-national trend, in all three countries the national level retains an important role in LMP policy design and financing
Büchs, M.
c62b4fbd-660c-4642-876e-de9512db9a9c
López-Santana, M.
c30f18d9-0be4-429c-822a-2e4ce16273b1
Büchs, M.
c62b4fbd-660c-4642-876e-de9512db9a9c
López-Santana, M.
c30f18d9-0be4-429c-822a-2e4ce16273b1

Büchs, M. and López-Santana, M. (2007) New governance and decentralisation in employment policy. Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association (LSA), Berlin, Germany. 25 - 28 Jul 2007.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

When thinking about the traditional boundaries of the welfare state, particularly of labour and employment policies, we tend to place them within the boundaries of the nation-state. However, with contemporary processes of European economic integration and devolution of competences to sub-national entities, our understanding of the spatial configuration of the welfare state has been challenged. These developments are also partially related to 'new governance' patterns in social policy. The authors explore the 'downward' movement of employment and labour market policies (LMP) in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy and explore cross-national differences regarding the characteristics and degree of decentralisation. The paper finds that decentralisation in Germany and the UK is mainly related to the 'activation' and 'employability' agenda, as well as a broader trend of public management reform whilst in Italy a more general restructuring of the state is the main motor of LMP decentralisation. In addition, we see private actors at the local level gaining an important role in the provision and management of this policy area (i.e., de-concentration) in the three countries. Nonetheless, even if we observe this cross-national trend, in all three countries the national level retains an important role in LMP policy design and financing

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More information

Published date: July 2007
Venue - Dates: Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association (LSA), Berlin, Germany, 2007-07-25 - 2007-07-28

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 47487
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/47487
PURE UUID: 0b80dd3f-4416-46e6-bcf6-2cdb0fdbbb9a

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 01 Aug 2007
Last modified: 22 Jul 2022 20:55

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Contributors

Author: M. Büchs
Author: M. López-Santana

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