Accelerating Governance Reforms: the French Case

Eydoux, Anne; Béraud, Mathieu

doi:10.1057/9780230306714_3

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…While the gap was instigated by economic crisis, it was extended by subsequent tightening of eligibility critieria and the raising of contributions to counter mounting financial pressures on Assurance chômage . In the 1970s and 1980s the gap was addressed politically by the ad hoc establishment of state‐led ‘regime of solidarity’, including the unemployed who had exhausted their rights without access to the system of assistance (Eydoux & Béraud : 44–45).…”

Section: Gradual Ideational and Institutional Change In The French MImentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, in the 1980s, there were still groups without any rights to support (Eydoux & Béraud :132). This created a longstanding test situation in which the ‘usual’ instruments, especially those based on the insurance logic of contribution and compensation, were deemed inappropriate causing substantial uncertainty as to how to qualify and handle these groups politically.…”

Section: Gradual Ideational and Institutional Change In The French MImentioning

confidence: 99%

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Legitimation as justification: Foregrounding public philosophies in explanations of gradual ideational change

Carstensen

Hansen

2018

European J Political Res

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In accounts of institutional change, discursive institutionalists point to the role of economic and political ideas in upending institutional stability and providing the raw material for the establishment of a new institutional setup. This approach has typically entailed a conceptualisation of ideas as coherent and monolithic and actors as almost automatically following the precepts of the ideas they hold and support. Recent theorising stresses how ideas are in fact composite and heterogeneous, and actors pragmatic and strategic in how they employ ideas in political struggles. However, this change of focus has, until recently, not included how foundational ideas of a polity, often referred to as ‘public philosophies’, are theorised to impact on institution‐building. Drawing on French Pragmatic Sociology, and taking as a starting point recent efforts within discursive institutionalism to conceptualise the dynamic nature of public philosophies, this article seeks to foreground moral justification in accounts of ideational and institutional change. It suggests that public philosophies are reflexively used by actors in continual processes of normative justification that may produce significant policy shifts over time. The empirical relevance of the argument is demonstrated through an analysis of gradual ideational and institutional change in French labour market policy, specifically the development from the state‐guaranteed minimum income scheme of 1988 to the neoliberal make‐work‐pay logic of the 2009 scheme, Revenu de solidarité active. The analysis shows that public and moral justifications have underpinned and gradually shaped these radical changes.

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Section: Gradual Ideational and Institutional Change In The French MImentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gradual Ideational and Institutional Change In The French MImentioning

confidence: 99%

Legitimation as justification: Foregrounding public philosophies in explanations of gradual ideational change

Carstensen

Hansen

2018

European J Political Res

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“…Major employment institutions were created at a time when unemployment rate was very low (the 1950s and the 1960s) and subsequently had to adapt the rise of massive unemployment, as well as to the reinforcement of activation strategies from the 1980s onwards. Governance reforms have affected the centralized steering of employment policies (through decentralization processes), as well as the management (NPM procedures, contractualism) and the organization of PES (outsourcing, inter‐agency cooperation) (Eydoux and Bérard, 2011, p. 47).…”

Section: Towards Converging Worlds Of Activation In Europe?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although some EU influence can be seen with respect to employment policy change (Caune et al , 2011; Graziano, 2011), the role played by the EU in activation governance reforms has regarded only the marketization dimension since “[i]n accordance with Communication 641 of the European Commission (1998), the Law on Social Cohesion of 18 January 2005 put an end to ANPE's[1] formal monopoly on job placement” (Eydoux and Bérard, 2011, p. 51). Therefore, although the overall governance changes were only partially led by decentralization (Eydoux and Bérard, 2011, p. 54), the European institutions played a clear role in the marketization trend of French governance reforms. In Germany reforms took place rather late in comparative perspective:[…] [w]ith respect to labour market activation, Germany may be called a late reformer.…”

Section: Towards Converging Worlds Of Activation In Europe?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Converging worlds of activation?

Graziano

2012

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

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PurposeThe purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between the emerging European activation policies and the evolution of domestic activation policies and its governance. Drawing on the emerging Europeanization debate and comparative literature on activation, the crucial research question will be the following: is there a European Union (EU)‐induced convergence in domestic activation policies in the EU?Design/methodology/approachFollowing Bonoli's work, the article unpacks activation in two dimensions (human capital investment and employment market orientation) and looks at the trajectories of seven Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) countries using OECD active labour market policy (ALMP) expenditure data.FindingsThe article argues that there is only limited EU‐induced convergence towards the employment assistance component of the EU hybrid model and similarly limited convergence can be seen with respect to the governance of activation policies. Although fully‐fledged explanations of such limited convergence go beyond the scope of this article, the paper puts forward two tentative explanations which should be tested with further research: first, the lack of convergence may lie primarily in the overall “softness” of the European Employment Strategy (which means, among other things, limited resources), but the lack of convergence may also lie in the lack of administrative capacities enabling member state governments to fully implement innovative activation policies.Originality/valueThe paper is innovative since it empirically tests the role of European policies and ideas in shaping domestic reforms of activation policies. Contrary to other findings, the article shows that there is a limited degree of convergence and that the role is particularly negligible with respect to implementation capacities of reformed activation strategies.

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New public governance and activation

Ehrler¹

2012

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

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Purpose -The purpose of this article is to assess the emergence of New Public Management in the governance of activation policies in nine European countries. In the light of considerable diversity in the implementation of New Public Management in the different countries, the article tries to identify common patterns. Design/methodology/approach -For the identification of patterns, fuzzy set theory is applied. Fuzzy sets are used to define ideal types and to measure the degree of membership in the different ideal types for every country. Findings -It is possible to show that despite the substantial diversity of New Public Management approaches in the governance of activation policies, common patterns exist. The article identifies four ideal types of New Public Management within the nine countries involved in the analysis. At the same time it is shown that most countries do not represent pure models but unify different tendencies within one dominant type. Originality/value -The identification of common patterns in the emergence of New Public Management in the governance of activation can provide a useful framework for discussion and further research on the implications of different forms of governance on the content and delivery of activation services in Europe.

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Accelerating Governance Reforms: the French Case

Cited by 5 publications

References 6 publications

Legitimation as justification: Foregrounding public philosophies in explanations of gradual ideational change

Legitimation as justification: Foregrounding public philosophies in explanations of gradual ideational change

Converging worlds of activation?

New public governance and activation

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