Marketization in a Federal System: New Modes of Governance in Unemployment Insurance and Social Assistance in Switzerland

Multiple streams in member state implementation: politics, problem construction and policy paths in Swiss asylum policy

“…While Zahariadis and Exadaktylos (2015) focus on entrepreneurial strategies to understand implementation decisions, we show that the MSA is also well suited to understand implementation decisions in federalist systems. Switzerland is an extreme case of decentralised member state implementation of federal law (Ehrler and Sager, 2011;Sager and Zollinger, 2011). This makes it a paradigmatic case which can inform our understanding of how the MSA explains implementation decisions.…”

The micro-politics of energy efficiency: An investigation of ‘eco-social interventions’ in western Switzerland

“…In Switzerland, persons entitled to subsidised housing – those targeted by the eco-social interventions – are mainly low-income populations, either unemployed or working-class (Kakpo and Cattacin, 2011). In a federal context with a highly fragmented and decentralised social policy, (Ehrler and Sager, 2011), 20.9% and 8.6% of households in Geneva and Vaud respectively benefit from these subsidies (Bourassa et al, 2010). Social housing policies lead to two forms of subsidies: one, aimed at supporting the development of low-income housing, through subsidies to real estate developers; the second, much less widespread on a national scale, but which exists in both Geneva and Lausanne, is to provide direct financial support to low-income tenants (Kakpo and Cattacin, 2011).…”

“…One is long-term unemployed people coming to the end of their entitlements, who benefit from social assistance and whose participation in the programme corresponds to a vocational retraining; the other category covers young people looking for a first job, who benefit from specific professional integration mechanisms in their municipalities. This emphasis on employability is a consequence of early 2000s unemployment insurance reforms aimed at active labour-market policies, that led to ‘a shift in outlook from passive income protection to a stronger emphasis on activation’ (Ehrler and Sager, 2011:153). The main competency being looked for is the ability of ambassadors to communicate and interact with the households, much more than their knowledge in energy and the environment, for which they are specifically trained at the beginning of the operation.…”

New public governance and activation

“…Quantifiable objectives are defined and the performance of the regional PES is monitored and assessed regularly (PES Monitor, 2011). Financial incentives are given in the form of one-line budgets per unit (Ehrler and Sager, 2011) 1 UK In the UK performance management has been introduced in 1991. Targets are defined and a well-developed controlling system with weekly monitoring and performance assessment exists.…”