The Governance of Active Welfare States in Europe

04/02/2014

'The Governance of Active Welfare States in Europe' written by Rik van Berkel, Willibrord de Graaf and Tomáš Sirovátka discusses details, patterns of change and effectiveness of labour market policy developments of the 2000’s in nine European countries. A review about the tome by Balázs Váradi (Budapest Institute), has recently been published in the latest issue of the Czech Sociological Review.

The book provides the reader with a detailed assessment of European labour market policy reforms of the last decade based on the experiences of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Country-specific case studies help the reader gain a thorough understanding of what has been done in the field  in these countries. Reform patterns and directions, impacts on the elements of the long chain of the system we call 'employment policy', along with mostly qualitative evaluations of the reform outcomes lie in the focus of the study. The book takes the interested reader and the profession another step closer to answering the complex questions about how to create more efficient, fairer and more empowering activation policies.