Master's Thesis Public Administration

Master’s Thesis Public Administration Research question: How do ideas, through discourse, influence the adoption of workfare activation policies in different welfare states?

Name: Maria K. Charles

Student number: s0101745

Stream: Economics and Governance

Thesis supervisor: Dr. Natascha van der Zwan

Study year: 2017/2018

Date: 11th of June 2018

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations ...... 3

Introduction ...... 4

Chapter 1: Theoretical framework ...... 8

1.1 The development of the welfare state ...... 8

1.2 A shift in thinking about the welfare state ...... 11

1.3 The activation of the welfare state: from welfare to workfare ...... 14

1.4 Convergence on activation policies ...... 17

1.5 The role of ideas and its influence on social policymaking ...... 19

Chapter 2: Research design and methods ...... 23

2.1 Problem definition and research design approach ...... 23

2.2 Conceptualization and operationalization of variables ...... 23

2.3 Case selection ...... 25

2.4 Data collection sources ...... 27

2.5 Method of analysis ...... 32

2.6 Addressing threats to inference ...... 34

Chapter 3: Findings ...... 36

3.1 The background environment ...... 36

3.2 Tracing the discourse ...... 37

3.2.1 The United Kingdom – The New Deal for Young People ...... 37

3.2.2 The Netherlands – Wet Inschakeling Werkzoekenden ...... 44

Chapter 4: Analysis ...... 49

Chapter 5: Conclusion ...... 51

Bibliography ...... 53

Appendix ...... 65

Question 1: What are the prevailing ideas? When can we first observe ideational influence, and how was this communicated? ...... 65

The United Kingdom ...... 65

The Netherlands ...... 68

Question 2: How have these ideas been translated into plans for national policy? .. 70

The United Kingdom ...... 70

The Netherlands ...... 72

Question 3: How was the discourse around the time of adoption? ...... 75

The United Kingdom ...... 75

The Netherlands ...... 76

List of Abbreviations

CDA Christen-Democratisch Appèl (Christian Democratic Appeal)

D66 Democraten 66 (Democrats66)

NYPD New Deal for Young People

PvdA Partij van de Arbeid (Labor Party)

VVD Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy)

WIW Wet Inschakeling Werkzoenden (Job seekers’ activation law)

Introduction

Welfare states remains a popular subject for study among scholars, with much emphasis on its evolution over the years. This master’s thesis deals with the role of ideas, measured through discourse, and the role it plays in one aspect of welfare state development. Macroeconomic forces pressure politicians to implement social policies (expanding or retrenching the welfare state) which may contrast their institutional past. In the 1990s, governments struggled to cope with the consequences of the aging population and early retirements (Walters, 1997), the increased demand from welfare recipients for social protection (Allen, Cook, Mitchell, & Watts, 2007), changes in the labor market with the decrease in demand for production based workers and increase in demand of knowledge/service-based workers (Iversen & Wren, 1998), and high unemployment as a result of the economic crisis of the 1980s (Cook, 2008). The former protective welfare state where social benefits were provided as a supplement to individual’s income was no longer sustainable. So a new way of thinking about the welfare state evolved. A new strategy called the social investment strategy, under the Third Way thinking, was introduced in many European countries (Van Kersbergen & Hemerijck, 2012). Social benefits were used as an incentive to get individual to work (Cox, 1998). This was the dawn of the activation era. Under this new way of thinking, benefit recipients were encouraged and empowered to find jobs, on the one hand, and obliged to keep these jobs, on the other (Barbier & Ludwig-Mayerhofer, 2004). Over the years, there has been a shift to adopt stricter approaches as it regards active labor market policies (Vis, 2007). This stricter approach is referred to as workfare. Simply put, this is social benefits in exchange for (testable) job search efforts (Dingeldey, 2007). Welfare regime types came to the forefront in academic literature particularly because of the work of Gøsta Esping-Andersen, who typified three forms of welfare states: the Liberal, Social-Democratic and Corporatist (Esping-Andersen, 1990). In keeping with this work, Barbier & Ludwig-Mayerhofer (2004) also identified welfare states according to their level of activation: the liberal and universal activation regimes. These various regime types are characterized by distinct ideologies on welfare which shape social policies (Arts & Gelissen, 2002; Esping-Andersen, 1990). Ideally, one would expect different responses from countries of different welfare regime types, as it is believed that different sets of ideas cause decision makers to act differently in the same circumstance (Hay, 2002). However, we see governments across Europe implementing workfare activation policies (Vis, 2007). This is puzzling because I

4 reason that the workfare approach is a better fit within the liberal activation type because of their focus on re-commodification (Mascini, Soentken, & Van der Veen, 2012). What’s more, a country characterized as having a universalistic activation welfare regime, should theoretically embrace decommodification and therefore not favor the workfare approach. If the ideology or way of thinking about the welfare state shapes social reform, then before a welfare policy reform happens there should also be a change in the thinking (Blyth, 1997; Hay, 2002). According to Vivien Schmidt (2002), a leading proponent of discursive institutionalism, ideas (which according to her are measured through discourse) has a superior propensity to provide a richer account of changes in the welfare state when put together with other forms of institutionalism. If this is to be believed, then we could look at the discourse surrounding a social reform to describe how ideas can influence a policy. According to Schmidt (2002), ideas, through discourse, can be measured by looking at the coordinative, i.e.: discourse among political actors, and communicative discourse, i.e.: discourse to the public, which is essentially whatever politicians communicate to fellow political actors and to the general public in order to create and justify their ideas. This is essentially framing, or in other words choosing to portray something in a particular so as to create classifications in the minds of people (Stone, 2012). Politicians frame their ideas in such a way so that it is normatively and cognitively acceptable to their peer and the public (Schmidt, 2002). So in essence, I assumed that by looking at the framing of a social policy, I would be able to show the strategies used to gain acceptance for a policy. Other studies have focused on the demonstrating the causal link between ideas and politics in general (for an account of different views see Béland & Cox 2011; Schmidt & Radaelli, 2004, welfare state adjustment from an economic perspective (Schmidt, 2002), and the development of activation policies (Weishaupt, 2011). However, I want to look specifically at the framing of ideas, and how this influenced the adoption of workfare policies in different welfare states (Barbier & Ludwig-Mayerhofer, 2004; Esping-Andersen, 1990) to see if and why there is a similarity in policy outcome despite different ideologies. Discursive intuitionalism is fairly new in comparison to other three forms of institutionalism and workfare activation have only started gaining popularity over the past two decades (Mascini, Soentken, & Van der Veen, 2012). With this thesis, I want to add to the growing contribution of work on discursive approaches by identifying and describing how it works in one of the newest aspects of welfare development, i.e.: workfare activation. The type of research I carried out was descriptive research. I address the puzzle concerning the convergence among European welfare state to embrace more workfare activation policies

5 despite these countries having differing welfare ideologies. The goal of the research is not to show causal links between ideas and social policy but to describe how ideas, through discourse, influenced the adoption of workfare activation policies in two different welfare states. I aim to show how ideas were framed to gain acceptance. The variables of interest for this study are ideas, welfare states (dependent variables), and workfare activation policies (dependent variable). The independent variable in this study is ideas, or rather, discourse. I ask the following research question and sub-questions: How do ideas, through discourse, influence the adoption of workfare activation policies in different welfare regimes?  What is the prevailing idea(s)? When can we first observe ideational influence, and how was this communicated?  How have these ideas been translated into plans for national policy?  How was the discourse around the time of adoption? Considering the nature of my study, I elected to carry out a comparative case study design because this is the best design to study few or single cases (Gerring, 2007, Yin, 2009). It afforded me the ability to carry out an in-depth investigation of the case as opposed to a study with larger samples. I also used a crucial case selection approach, which a theory-driven case selection method founded on three pillars, namely the theory used has to have reasonably clear- cut expectations, the cases selected to test the theory should be led by said theory and make the best use of it, and lastly, the researcher has to be clear beforehand about the types of evidence he or she will accept as evidence (Gerring, 2007). The cases I selected are the countries the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. These countries have two different welfare state ideologies, the United Kingdom is considered liberal and the Netherlands is social democratic1 (Arts & Gelissen, 2002), yet both have been frontrunners with regards to activation policies (Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013). Since the 1990s both countries have also embraced a workfare approach. The units of analysis are reforms implemented during this period. In the United Kingdom it is the New Deal for Young People and in the Netherlands, it is the Wet Inschakeling Werkzoekenden. I employ a most-likely and a least-likely case selection strategy. The two cases offered the opportunity to compare two welfare states of which one is, or rather should be, (theoretically) receptive, i.e.: the United Kingdom, and the other not receptive, i.e.: the Netherlands, to workfare activation approaches. The aforementioned test assessment is achieved through a research technique called process tracing. It is a method that uses evidence

1 According to Barbier and Mayerhofer’s (2004) classification, the United Kingdom is considered a liberal activation regime idea type, and the Netherlands is considered a universalistic activation regime ideal type.

6 identified from studying the case to make inferences about causal explanations about that case (Bennett & Checkel, 2014, Toshkov, 2016). Moreover, my data collection strategy was to look at spoken and written texts. To gauge the ideas of political actors found in the coordinative and communicative discourse, I looked at primary data sources such as speeches, political manifestos, legislation, newspaper and television interviews, and debates. For background information about the cases, I looked at secondary data sources such as academic journals, books, and newspaper articles. This thesis is divided into four parts. Chapter one is the theoretical framework. This section is intended to provide the reader with an indication of the lens through which I see and, ultimately, address the puzzle expressed in this paper. I begin by sketching a picture of the development of the welfare state and highlighting the change in thinking that came about in as a result of different socio-economic factors. Subsequently, I address how activation policies have become a normal response among welfare states, and conclude by touching on how ideas, through discourse can lend a hand in understanding how ideational change happens, resulting in the implementation of certain social policies. I include the expectations I have for this study. Chapter two contains information about the methodology used in designing and selecting cases for this research. In addition, I explain how I collected my data, and how I analyzed this according to the theoretical framework provided in the Literature Review section of this dissertation. Principally, I want to show how this strategy helped me to obtain the answers to my research question. In Chapter three I handle the findings from the research carried out and an analysis of the evidence I found. I use a discourse analysis strategy to analyze spoken and written texts. The goal is not only to show similarities and/or difference but also to describe the role of ideas in the adoption of workfare activation policies. Lastly, in Chapter four, I present my conclusions on the research conducted.

Chapter 1: Theoretical framework

1.1 The development of the welfare state

Though the concept of welfare is age-old, the term welfare state only started gaining prominence in the 1930s when governments of advanced industrialized societies struggled to stabilize crippled economies as a result of the Great Depression (Greve, 2008). The notion of welfare state centers on the role of the government or state to provide for the well-being of its citizens. According to Greve, in order to adequately measure the welfare state in terms of outcome and effectiveness, governments should consider more factors besides economic aspects, i.e., social expenditures. In providing for the welfare of its inhabitants, states must also consider societal developmental aspects such as health, education, aging, and pensions. To an extent, this was the view held by Gøsta Esping-Andersen in his seminal work The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Esping-Andersen (1990, pp. 26-29) outlines three regime types: the Liberal welfare state, the Social Democratic welfare state, and the Conservative/ Corporatist welfare state. These three classifications are ideal types in which, in reality, no state fits specifically. Nevertheless, Esping-Andersen contribution with these typologies continues to be helpful in aiding further research, particularly when used to explain the development within and across welfare regimes. Esping-Andersen (1990, pp. 21-26) characterizes the three welfare state regimes according to two essential dimensions: (1) the degree of decommodification and (2) the level of social stratification. The former dimension is the degree to which individuals are able to maintain a living without having to participate in the labor market. In this case, the government provides welfare benefits (e.g.: unemployment benefits and tax credits) that would enable a person to still function within society, i.e., meet their basic needs, without work. The second dimension denotes how the policies implemented stimulates the system of stratification and how this influences social solidarity and the formation of stigmas (e.g.: social policies for poor people automatically categorizes the individuals that make use of this benefit) (Arts & Gelissen, 2002). The three welfare regimes each have distinct policy approaches, ideologies and structures of welfare and how it is implemented. The Liberal welfare state places much emphasis on the labor market and is characterized by a low level of decommodification (Esping- Andersen, 1990, pp. 26-27). Social benefits are modest and only target the very needy. The Social Democratic welfare state comprises a generous, universalistic and highly distributive

8 welfare system (Esping-Andersen, 1990, p. 27). It is considered to have a high level of decommodification and there is a high degree of benefit equality. The Conservative/Corporatist welfare state comprises a moderate level of decommodification but this is dependent on status (Esping-Andersen, 1990, p. 27). Moreover, it emphasizes the role of the family and traditional welfare providers, such as the Catholic Church, to care for the needs of its members. In this case, the government only steps in if the aforementioned welfare providers are unable to fulfill their roles. Social benefits are then based on past contributions. Over the years, European welfare states have gone through structural changes with periods of expansion and retrenchment. According to Allan and Scruggs (2004), the following distinction can be made: a period of expansion before the 1980s and a period of retrenchment after the 1980s. After the 1980s, the social and political climate had changed because of globalization, deindustrialization, the changes in the traditional family and the role of women in the labor market, combined with modest economic growth over a period of years (Myles & Quadagno, 2002, p. 35). As a result, social policies were shaped by demands for more austere measures, i.e.: retrenchment. Governments worldwide struggled to provide answers to social problems such as rising unemployment, the aging population and the respective problems regarding pensions (Castles et al, 2010). There are theories that claim that globalization exerts pressure on governments to conform fiscally, causing instances of expansion or retrenchment. One example is the so-called efficiency hypothesis, which claims that retrenchment is brought about when a government lowers taxes in an effort to attract large companies desiring to be established in countries with low production costs (Garrett & Mitchell, 2001). However, this efficiency hypothesis has been rejected by many studies over the years (Glatzer & Rueschemeyer, 2005; Starke, Obinger, & Castles, 2008). Another is the compensation hypothesis (Walter, 2010), which asserts that governments try to compensate the losers of globalization, i.e.: workers who lose their jobs, for risks associated with international competition through redistribution (Walter, 2010). Opponents of this theory credit deindustrialization as the major reason for the expansion of the welfare state (Iversen & Cusack, 2000). Besides the pressure of a shifting global economy, partisanship also plays a role in the discussion about welfare state development. Esping-Andersen credits the working classes ability to mobilize, and push support for leftist parties who, in turn, implement more generous social policies, as the reason for welfare expansion (Esping-Andersen, 1990, p. 29). This is the Power Resource Theory and contrasts with an earlier view which reasoned that the welfare state

9 expansion came as the result of economic growth and demographic change (Wilensky, 1975 as cited in Myles & Quadagno, 2002). According to the New Politics of the Welfare State (1996), Paul Pierson claims that welfare expansion theories, such as the Power Resource Theory, do not play a decisive role in the evolution of the welfare state. He argues that welfare state expansion and retrenchment are distinctively different because the latter has a different goal (the retrenchment reforms) and context (the possible political backlash for these reforms, which cause politicians to engage in blame avoidance tactics) which creates a new political dynamic for the welfare state. While it is true that welfare expansion and retrenchment have different political contexts, Pierson does not deny the part that partisanship plays in that right-wing governments are more likely to retrench (Pierson, 1996, pp. 176-177). Examples are the reforms of Margaret Thatcher in England and Ronald Reagan’s in the United States of America. Moreover, the type of political decision-making, i.e.: social policies and program, can be attributed to the type of welfare state regime it is (i.e.: Liberal, Conservative, or Social Democratic), as this determines the level of generosity and focus on commodification (Vis, 2007). Left wing governments are credited with more generous social spending and, thus, larger welfare states, while right-wing governments are said to be more likely to retrench (Allan & Scruggs, 2004; Klitgaard & Elmelund-Præstekær, 2013). There are a number of scholars that make an argument for the role of partisanship in welfare state development. For example, Hicks and Swank showed that welfare expansion is dampened with rightist party participation in government as opposed to leftist parties (Hicks & Swank, 1984). Allan and Scruggs (2004) analyzed partisanship by looking at political manifestos and programs and found that differences between left and right wing politics stand. Kwon & Pontusson (2010) also provide some evidence for the role of partisanship in the expansion of the welfare state by looking at the interaction between globalization, the power of unions and partisan politics. They argue that partisanship matters during globalization if unions are strong. In keeping with the Power Resource Theory, strong unions put pressure on leftist parties for favorable social security arrangements and/or protection. However, sometimes left and right wing parties behave differently in times of crisis, engaging in behavior that would not normally fit within their political ideology. Starke, Kaasch, & Van Hooren (2014) maintain that countries with low welfare state expenditure and few economic stabilizing programs such unemployment benefits to balance out fluctuations in the economy tend to be more influenced by partisan politics. Whereas, in countries with larger welfare state expenditure, the direction of change is determined by other things such as

10 supranational organizations and public debt. Conversely, Raess & Pontusson (2014) reject this view; for them, it is the other way around. They say that if a welfare state is larger, and thus has more economic stabilizers, then partisanship matters more. They argue that smaller welfare states, in the absence of safety nets in a crisis, may expose ruling parties to electoral backlash. As a result, parties may act differently to gain or save votes. According to Rueda's (2005) governments do not always support welfare expansion policies when it is politically unfavorable (Rueda, 2005, p. 71). Here, Pierson’s central argument about the new politics of the welfare state becomes evident, namely that ‘contemporary politics of the welfare state is the politics of blame avoidance’ (Pierson, 1996, p. 179). In any case, as Pierson (1996) points out, a purely historical analysis may be insufficient to explain why political parties act in an adverse way, given the new goal and context under which they operate. A social policy’s ‘unfolding over time’ (Pierson, 1996, p. 178) requires an analytical framework that can explain change. However, I will return to this point below. In sum, we see that over the years the welfare state has evolved. Whether a government chooses to expand or decrease the size or scope of the welfare state as a result of macroeconomic forces normally depends on the political ideology it holds. Although given much attention in scholarly articles, the abovementioned responses to social problems are not the only answers to the socio-economic pressures described above. Van Kersbergen, Vis, & Hemerijck, 2014 believe that besides expansion and retrenchment, governments can respond to social and economic crises by embracing a social investment strategy. This social investment strategy presented another way of thinking about the welfare state.

1.2 A shift in thinking about the welfare state

After the Second World War, welfare states2 were fairly protective, in the sense that it was generally accepted that the government’s role was to provide for the well-being of its citizens (Castles et al, 2010). By the 1980s the idealistic hopes and dreams of the post-war era – a time when a number of governments had expanded their welfare programs – were over. Burdened with inflation, foreign policy pressures, and high unemployment rates as a result of the 1970s economic crisis, governments responded by establishing public employment services and providing financial assistance for the vulnerable in a type of Keynesian intervention3 (Cook,

2 Refers to advanced industrial countries within the OECD. Southern European countries have developed relatively little in terms of activation as compared to its western counterparts (Bonoli, 2013). 3 Short-term total government spending to stimulate the economy in times of crisis.

2008). However, they soon needed to develop new ideas and strategies to address their social (e.g.: inequality) and economic (e.g.: unemployment) problems. Firstly, there was concern about the aging population and early retirements, which put stress on government resources, as pension and healthcare benefits form a large part of social expenditure (Walters, 1997). Secondly, governments could not maintain the expansive and protective welfare state because of the increased demand from welfare recipients for social protection (Allen, Cook, Mitchell, & Watts, 2007). Thirdly, deindustrialization, globalization and rise in technology changed the dynamics of the work environment, where the demand for production based workers, common to the industrial age, decreased and the call for knowledge/service-based employment increased (Iversen & Wren, 1998). Fourthly, as a result of the former point, new strategies were necessary to address the mismatches between skills Consequently, European governments changed the emphasis from providing full employment 4 to embracing policies that were created to improve the employability of vulnerable individuals without work. This change in thinking from a passive welfare state to an active welfare state can be termed a ‘paradigm shift’ (Eichhorst & Konle-Seidl, 2008; Hall, 1993). Traditionally, social security benefits were seen as a replacement or supplement for the missed income (a sort of safety net) for when a worker lost his/her livelihood because of unemployment, injury or sickness (Cox, 1998; Walters, 1997). According to Van Kersbergen & Hemerijck (2012), this use of social expenditures to help develop the capacities of the unemployed is referred to as the social investment strategy. Under this social investment strategy, the social benefits system was no longer seen as a financial burden for governments, but as an incentive to improve production and economic growth (Cox, 1998). Social policies are then considered as an investment in human capital (for example: education and vocational training, active labor market policies, childcare and benefits for working mothers). By investing in human capital on the short term, governments hope to increase labor participation in the long run (Van Kersbergen & Hemerijck, 2012). In other words, it can be said that the goal of the social investment strategy is to balance social and economic goals (Morel, Palier, & Palme, 2012, p. 354) by making individuals dependent on the labor market again because the investment helps them back to work and lowers the dependence on the state. The idea of the social investment strategy contrasts Esping-Andersen’s view of decommodification. Esping-Andersen’s decommodification falls into line with the traditional view of the welfare state described at the beginning of this section, which supports the welfare

4 Full employment strategies included all actions to provide direct employment to the unemployed, particularly within the public sector (Allen, Cook, Mitchell, & Watts, 2007). 12 state as safety net perspective. The idea of decommodification allows an individual to maintain a living without having to participate in the labor market because, essentially, the benefits received “replaces” the income from work (Esping-Andersen, 1990, p. 37). Under the social investment strategy, benefits are seen as an incentive for the unemployed to enter or return to the workforce (Cox, 1998). This change in thinking describes the shift from passive to active. Nevertheless, the focus in both the former and the latter welfare society is worker-related. However, where social rights are afforded to non-workers (i.e.: most vulnerable in society) as an integrative mechanism in the welfare society allowing them to still function without a livelihood, the active society integrates through the labor market (Walters, 1997) and promotes the labor participation for all (Bonoli, 2013). The shift from a passive welfare state to an active welfare state resolves the tradeoff between equality and efficiency (Morel et al, (2009, p.10) as cited in Van Kersbergen & Hemerijck, 2012, p. 475). Governments balance providing social protection, on the one hand, and managing welfare state costs on the other. An example of this is the implementation of ‘make work pay’ or workfare measures in the United Kingdom. While under this scheme benefit recipients receive tax credits, at the same time, the amount and duration of unemployment benefits are reduced (Daguerre & Etherington, 2014). Understandably, embracing active social policy strategies remains attractive for governments for three reasons. Firstly, in the short run, activation policies discourage dependence on social insurance while increasing the workforce participation (Cox, 1998). Secondly, increasing the possibilities for employment could mean more income tax revenues in the long run, which broadens the government’s resource capabilities for social spending (Eichhorst, Kaufmann & Konle-Seidl, 2008). Thirdly, because activation policies are less expensive than traditional forms of welfare expenditure, and appear more sympathetic than the retrenchment policies imposed by right- wing politics, it offers left-wing governments the opportunity for ‘affordable credit claiming’ (Bonoli, 2013, p. 8). In short, after the Second World War, European welfare states underwent a paradigm shift. This change in thinking ushered in an era of active social policies that focused on the development of individuals with the view to improving and encouraging workforce participation and discourage dependence on the welfare state.

1.3 The activation of the welfare state: from welfare to workfare

The OECD’s definition of activation as cited in Martin (2014) is as follows: To bring more people into the effective labour force, to counteract the potentially negative effects of unemployment and related benefits on work incentives by enforcing their conditionality on active job search and participation in measures to improve employability, and to manage employment services and other labour market measures so that they effectively promote and assist the return to work. (p. 4). There are two categories of social policies that European governments use to address unemployment: (1) passive labor market policies (PLMPs) and (2) active labor market policies (ALMPs) (Barr, 2012; Hemerijck & Vandenbroucke, 2012). The former encompasses the payment of unemployment benefits such as social assistance and unemployment insurance, and the latter is meant to stimulate people without work in order to increase their employability. For example, training programs for young people or special work placement programs for disabled people. The concept activation has evolved from merely referring to cutbacks in passive labor market policies, to now refer to ‘a dimension of the reform of social protection’ (Barbier & Ludwig-Mayerhofer, 2004, p. 423) It includes entire systems consisting of programs and services that are aimed at increasing human capacity (Van Berkel & Borghi, 2008). Granting that activation policies are not an entirely new concept5, the real distinction between the old and the new approach, i.e.: welfare and workfare, is its punitive and compulsory quality (Barbier & Ludwig-Mayerhofer, 2004). This is where welfare recipients are subject to stricter job search conditions in that they are required to make every effort to (re)enter the workforce, and failure to maximize job opportunities can result in the reduction of or cancellation benefits (Van Berkel & Borghi, 2008, p. 332). Activation policies can be categorized according to program types and features. Kluve (2010) classified active labor market policies into four main program types: (1) labor market training, i.e.: in-the-classroom, on-the-job training and work experience; (2) private sector incentive programs (for instance: wage subsidy and self-employment grants); (3) direct employment programs, i.e.: direct employment programs in the public sector); and, (4) services and sanctions, i.e.: all measures to encourage and enhance job search efficiency. The goal of the first type is to maximizing human capacity by increasing skills. The second ALMP type is

5 Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Norway have focused on ‘active’ social policy such as educational training for many years (Barbier & Ludwig-Mayerhofer, 2004). However, these differ from the ‘active’ social policy referred to as workfare because their purpose was not to solve social issues or empowering disadvantaged people.

14 meant to encourage employers to hire new workers (usually individuals that have been unemployed for a longer period of time), to maintain jobs that would normally be outsourced, or to encourage individuals to become self-employed. Thirdly, direct employment programs are directed at the very underprivileged. The objective is to keep these individuals in contact with the job market and to avoid them falling out completely. The last ALMP type is focused on improving the efficiency of matching the job and the individual. Pascual & Magnusson (2007) distinguish three features of activation policies: (1) an individualized approach (the activation policy targets the individual’s behaviour and motivation); (2) emphasis on employment (individuals are encouraged to be self-sufficient); and (3) contractualization (the joint effort of the state and the individual with regards to recommodification, i.e., independence on social assistance by rejoining the workforce). The way in which activation policies are implemented is also dependent on the institutional dynamics and socio-economic environment of a country (Clasen and Clegg, 2006). Here, again partisanship comes into play. In the 1990s, Western Europe was characterized by predominantly left-wing government rule6, which could present a reason for the relatively rapid spread of the social investment approach among the European Union community. The EU encouraged member states to embrace policies in order to combat high unemployment rates of the 1990s that would foster social and economic coherence (Martin, 2014). The European Commission introduced the European Employment Strategy (EES) under the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in 1997 (Eichhorst, Kaufmann, & Konle-Seidl, 2008). The EU established the OMC to help coordinate the different national policies held by member states, and the EES was developed to help European member states reform national employment and social welfare systems (Heidenreich, 2009). Besides the EES, the OECD was also influential in (re)shaping the political climate with regards to employment in the EU when they commissioned the OECD Jobs Study (and later the OECD Jobs Strategy). The aim of the aforementioned study was to help OECD member countries to combat unemployment. The focus of the study emphasized work-related policies and activation agendas typical of the social investment agenda (Van Gerven & Beckers, 2009). It was this type of Third Way7 thinking that ushered in the EES and

6 Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in Denmark; Wim Kok in the Netherlands; Tony Blair in the United Kingdom; and Gerhard Schröder in Germany (Bonoli, 2013). 7 According to Van Kersbergen, and Hemerijck (2011) the Third Way refers to social policies that are characteristically different from conventional social democratic or neo-liberal policies. “The ‘third way' that is emerging is more than anything about the creation of employment and high rates of labor market participation. It is about turning welfare into work. European social democracy is quite flexible about the means to achieve this goal. Thus, ‘third-way ' policy pragmatism involves both a positive view of the ability of the market to provide certain outcomes and a strong emphasis on the active ‘social investment state'. At the level of practical policies, the ‘third way' involves such elements as a robust macroeconomic policy, responsive wage bargaining, combining

15 the OECD Jobs Study & Strategy, which encouraged European countries to embrace activation (Clasen & Clegg, 2006; Green-Pedersen, Van Kersbergen, & Hemerijck, 2011; Van Vliet & Koster, 2011). Like Esping-Andersen, welfare states are also characterized according to activation regime ideology. Barbier and Ludwig-Maerhoffer (2004) distinguish between the liberal and universalistic activation ideal-types regimes8. Firstly, the liberal activation type (for example the United Kingdom) is characterized by modest income protection (for example individuals are encouraged to accept any job on the market as is) and modest social benefits; it can be considered to have a punitive individualized approach. Secondly, the universalistic activation type (for example Denmark) is considered to have generous universalistic income protection and social benefits, with the emphasis placed on contractualization, i.e: the state and the individual work together to find suitable work. In contrast to the liberal activation welfare type, in the universalistic welfare type activation applies to all citizens and not select participants. It should be mentioned that no country fit either ideal type perfectly but have a mixture of elements of either type depending on the policy (Barbier & Ludwig-Mayerhofer, 2004, p. 429). However, Barbier and Ludwig-Mayerhofer’s typification meet the criteria of practicality specified by Arts and Gelissen (2002), in that they provide a topographical overview of the broad characteristics of activation policies. Moreover, this categorization of activation regime types corresponds with the Esping-Andersen’ work (and, largely, other scholars that have developed typologies over the years). Arts and Gelissen (2002) provide an extensive list. In sum, activation policies oblige individuals dependent on unemployment benefits or social assistance to participate in work. Essentially, activation strategies are meant to ensure that the unemployed have better chances to find work. Under these schemes, governments place the emphasis on the individual’s responsibility to take active steps to secure his/her employability in exchange for receiving benefits. In a case of noncompliance, benefit sanctions can be implemented. European governments, under the influence of the European Union, embraced activation policies in an effort to increase labor market efficiency, productivity and provide means to an income for the unemployed (Eichhorst, Kaufmann, & Konle-Seidl, 2008). So, despite differences in welfare state ideology, European welfare states seemed to converge with regards to the implementation of activation policies to solve unemployment issues.

wage moderation and flexibility, active labor market policies, and employment-friendly and efficient tax and social policy” (pg. 309). 8 Barbier and Ludwig-Maerhoffer (2004, pg. 428): ‘it is not possible to contend that a third, coherent, ‘continental’ ideal-type has clearly emerged in activation policies’.

1.4 Convergence on activation policies

Holzinger & Knill (2005) offers a clear definition of the concept of convergence, namely: ‘any increase in the similarity between one or more characteristics of a certain policy…across a given set of political jurisdictions…over a given period of time’ (pp. 768). The term convergence can be observed in terms of policy goals, content, instruments, outcomes, and style (Bennett C. J., 1991). Moreover, there are generally four processes that cause convergence: (1) the emulation of successful neighboring countries, (2) elite networking (for example: the EES and OECD Jobs Study), (3) harmonization (for example: countries complying with ‘soft laws' because they want to be integrated into the European Union), and (4) penetration (for example: where countries are forced to go along with decision taken by external actors) (Bennett C. J., 1991, pp. 223-227). Some scholars point to elite networking motivations such as the EES and OECD Jobs Study as a reason for the relatively rapid spread of activation policies within the European Union (Van Vliet & Koster, 2011). Others have argued that it came as a result of globalization, deindustrialization and socio-economic changes. For an overview of other welfare state convergence scenarios by different authors see Bonoli, 2013; Starke, Obinger, & Castles, 2008; and Weishaupt, 2011. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that although European welfare states converged on the same goal, there are differences in the degree of intensity and methods of implementation of activation programs/policies on a national level (Bonoli, 2013; Dingeldey, 2007; Gough, 2008; Lindsay & Mailand, 2003). In other words, there was activation but it happened differently for the different countries. For instance, the Nordic countries were the first to implement activation strategies such as educational and on-the-job training aimed at empowering the unemployed (Bonoli, 2013). These countries maintain a weaker workfare approach but have strong employment enabling elements such as the examples mentioned in the previous sentence (Dingeldey, 2007). Liberal welfare states focused on deregulation and liberalization of their economies, while conservative welfare states concentrated on early reducing the labor supply (Bonoli, 2013). Additionally, some countries relied more heavily on a marketization strategy9 (Van Berkel, 2009), and others spent more on activation than others. For example, spending on active labor market policies in the Netherlands in 1990 was 1.05 percent of the GDP. In the United Kingdom, this was 0.61 percent (Cook, 2008). Despite the differences in approach, what has remained central in the different welfare states is the

9 The Netherlands made use of private companies, whereas other countries employed a mixed service provision model of both in-house and private companies to provide benefits (Van Berkel, 2009).

17 heightening and promotion of individuals finding ‘paid work’ and joining the labor force (Barbier & Ludwig-Mayerhofer, 2004). Classically, convergence theorists believed that the socio-economic consequences of globalization would balance out any differences between industrialized nations (Esping- Andersen, 2010; Iversen & Cusack, 2000). Indeed, the trend within welfare states is that universal welfare systems are becoming more liberal, and liberal welfare states increasingly adopt more universal traits (Achterberg & Yerkes, 2009)10. More particularly, there has been progressive acceptance of workfare programs11 (Vis, 2007). What is not clear is how welfare states with differing ideologies arrived at ‘similar’ outcomes, namely workfare policies. To clarify, I do not refer to workfare methods but a way of thinking12. Theoretically, one would expect different responses from countries of different welfare regime types, as it is believed that different sets of ideas cause decision makers to act differently in the same circumstance (Hay, 2002). To be more specific, workfare, as opposed to welfare, resonates with the liberal activation type, and less so with a country that holds the universalistic activation type ideology. I reason this way because I believe the focus of the liberal activation regime is creating independence for the neediest, i.e. reliance on the market and creating non-reliance on the welfare state (re-commodificaton). For the universalistic activation regime, the attention is on securing a strong social security system and flexible labor market for all (Barbier & Ludwig- Mayerhofer, 2004). I am interested to see how actors of differing welfare state types come to implement strategies along the same workfare lines. In essence, convergence is about moving from differences to arrive at one common position and implies development over time. However, the point of reference, within this context, is not differences within European welfare states but the variance from some former stage to another (Bennett, 1991), i.e.: the shift from welfare to workfare. The ideas presented in the EES were translated into different national strategies to achieve the same goal. Still, there has been an increasing tendency to utilize workfare approaches. In order to identify how differing European welfare states with diverse ideologies arrived at a similar approach, I want

10 Weishaupt suggests that there is increasing convergence as it regards public expenditure on active labor market policies in European welfare states (Weishaupt J. T., 2011). 11 The Netherlands had the ‘Melkertbanen’ in the 1990s, the United Kingdom had the New Deal in 1998, there was ‘the labour market support’ scheme in Finland in 1994, in Sweden the activation guarantee in 2000, Norway had the ‘arbeitslinjen’ in the 1980s and Germany had ‘Hilfe zur Arbeit’ in the late 1990s (Vis, 2007, p. 119). 12 The workfare way of thinking focuses on getting people back into paid jobs by expanding services that help to increase employability, on the one hand, and obliging (through penalties) benefit recipients to make use employment opportunities, on the other (Dingeldey, 2007). So, in other words, participants are required to work in other to receive unemployment benefit. Anyone that is able to work has to do so before they can think of relying on the welfare system. 18 to consider the policy contents and styles (i.e.: how a social policy is established and how it is formulated) employed by the political actors in these countries, considering that all policymaking revolves around the exchange of ideas (Stone, 2012). Hay and Rosamund (2002, pp. 148) said ‘it is the ideas that actors hold about the context in which they find themselves rather than the context itself which informs the way in which actors behave’ (as cited in Ellison, 2006).

1.5 The role of ideas and its influence on social policymaking

It is said that ‘institutions are carriers of ideas’ (Rothstein 2005, pg. 7, as cited in Schmidt, 2011). Welfare states are institutions that are made up of a number of different organizations that carry out the informal and the formal rules defined by that institution (North, 1990). These rules are made and changed by humans, and determine how we interact with one another in society. Therefore, a study of institutional change will inevitably revolve around human behavior. Considering the above, it is no surprise that scholars often turn to some form of institutionalism to explain political action (Schmidt, 2002). Historically, there are three forms: rational choice institutionalism, historical institutionalism, and sociological institutionalism. Decisions of political actors were often relegated to one of the historical institutions, arguing that behaviors of decision makers were the product of the structures, processes, and culture they come from. And, that by studying the context of these, we would be able to predict a political outcome (Hay, 2002). Over the years there has been much discussion about the concept of ideas, how to define it and its role in policymaking. Schmidt (2008) sums up a list of previous academic works where ideas have been presented as switches for interests, road maps, or focal points (Goldstein and Keohane 1993); strategic constructions (Jabko 2006); strategic weapons in the battle for control (Blyth 2002); narratives which shape understandings of events (e.g., Roe l994); ‘frames of reference’ (Jobert 1989; Muller 1995); collective memories (Rothstein 2005); or national traditions (Katzentein 1996). Despite neglect from earlier generations of scholars, welfare state scholars now acknowledge the importance of ideas for welfare state development. Ideas help to clarify principles, organize behavior, and order the world and, therefore, can influence the decision-making of political actors (Goldstein & Keohane, 1993). Moreover, ideas are central to change and the forming of new institutions (Hall, 1993). As Hay said, before a change in policy can happen, a change in the ideas that formed the policy has to happen first (Blyth, 1997; Hay, 2002).

To address ideas in policymaking, the fourth form of institutionalism called discursive institutionalism was introduced. This form of institutionalism is concerned with the substantive content of ideas and on the interactive processes that serve to generate those ideas and communicate those to the public (see Schmidt 2002, 2008, 2011). The concept idea is difficult to define, however, Béland and Cox (2011) offer a simple and clear definition: ideas are causal beliefs which communicates what people want, what they deem appropriate, legitimate and proper (Béland & Cox, 2011, p. 3). Schmidt (2002, 2008) offers us three general levels to think about ideas within policymaking: policies (i.e.: policy ideas), programs (i.e.: beliefs that support the policy ideas) and philosophies (i.e.: deeper philosophical beliefs that underpin both the policies and programs). These ideas can be divided into two categories: cognitive ideas (cognitive ideas justify policies and programs according to logic and necessity) and normative ideas (normative ideas justify policies and programs in terms of how appropriate they are in light of public values and principles) Schmidt (2002). The strength of this form of institutionalism lies in its ability to explain change and support other forms of institutionalism. While all institutionalism forms are able to link structure and agency, according to Vivien Schmidt (2002), the three classical forms of institutionalism are unable to adequately explain change. Discursive institutionalism goes beyond looking at the structures and processes that shape institutions and takes into account the individuals whose actions and interests brought about certain policy decisions through their ideas (Schmidt, 2002). This suggests that institutional change can occur when the ideas, expressed through discourse, also change (Hay, 2002). Such a change can come about as a result of socio-economic pressures (for example economic crisis), which encourages a rapid acceptance of ideas that would previously be unacceptable (Vis, Van Kersbergen, & Hylands, 2011). Another strength lies in discursive institutionalism’s ability to build on the other forms of institutionalism. Schmidt argues that the other three form of institutionalism can be treated as taken-for-granted, common-sense ideas which serve as background assumptions to further build theory on or to investigate a problem (Schmidt, 2008). When discourse is added to any of the three, it creates a stronger framework to build from (idem). Schmidt (2002) goes further than just talking about ideas within the wider context of the three forms of institutionalism, acting as fillers to support other forms of explanation (Blyth, 1997, p. 231). Instead, she focuses on discourse. Discourse ‘serves to explain political events, to legitimate political actions, to develop political identities, to reshape and/or reinterpret political history and, all in all, to frame the national political discussion’ (March & Olsen 1995, pg. 45-66 as cited in Schmidt & Radaelli, 2004). Discourse can be distinguished in two ways:

20 by content and by usage. Content refers to the policy ideas and values that are presented, and usage denotes the interactive process of how a social policy is formed and communicated to the outside world (Schmidt, 2002). Thus, discourse is defined as the interactive process of the exchange of ideas (Schmidt 2002, 2008, 2011). Schmidt further conceptualizes this by the following interpretation: “whatever policy actors say to one another and to the public more generally in their efforts to construct and legitimate their policy programs” (Schmidt, 2002, p. 169). She provides two ways to operationalize this: analysis of coordinative discourse and communicative discourse. The former concerns itself with communication among policy actors and the latter is communication towards the general public. Considering the above, I argue that ideas also played a role in the transition towards activation. Pressure to fund an increasing welfare state, because of social-economic factors such as high unemployment, the changing labor market and social changes (aging and changes in the make-up of the traditional family), encouraged politicians to seek out other alternatives to the costly protective welfare state they held in the past. Ideas of social investment ushered in an era of activation. The European Commission provided European nations with an activation strategy (the EES) to fight the high unemployment that was so prevalent in European welfare states in the 1990s. The notions presented in the EES had to, ultimately, be translated into appropriate national programs and social systems. Before this could happen, these nations had to embrace the idea of activation, i.e.: accept it as cognitively and normatively acceptable (Schmidt 2002, 2008). As Blyth said, a paradigm shift is an idea that gains salience and becomes institutionally embedded because it fits within the ideological structure of a country (Blyth, 1997, p. 232). Both the political actors within the coordinative discourse arena, and the members of the public within the communicative discourse arena, judge the cognitive necessity and normative appropriateness of the ideas presented, and are persuaded (or not) by these ideas. Whether political actors or the public are persuaded by the necessity or appropriateness of a policy often depends on how an idea is framed (Béland, 2005). Framing is, as the word denotes, choosing to see some things (within the frame) and excluding others (outside the frame). This creates criteria of categorization, i.e.: what is acceptable or not, which ultimately structures the ideals that influence people's behavior (Stone, 2012). In sum, macroeconomic factors, such as globalization, aging, unemployment, etcetera, create situations where political players are forced to act. By studying the discourse of these actors, one can trace how social policy takes shape. In explaining the explanatory benefits of using ideas through discourse to understand political change, Vivien Schmidt discusses how fundamental it is to show that discourse matters by analyzing if and how these ideas are

21 presented in a way that re-conceptualizes the interests of political actors, reshapes institutional ideas, and/or reframes culture (Schmidt, 2008). In this dissertation, I am describing the role ideas play in the adoption of workfare activation policies in differing welfare states. By looking at discourse surrounding policy content and styles, I not only identify if and where similarities lie, but also show the framing of ideas, which demonstrate how ideas influenced the adoption of workfare activation policies in different welfare states. I have the following expectations: (1) The discourse surrounding activation in the countries under observation will be framed in such a way in order to be cogitatively and normatively acceptable in order to win approval; (2) The liberal activation regime will frame activation as a way to gain independence of welfare markets, while the universal activation regime will focus on creating or maintaining equality, and encouraging personal contribution to society.

Chapter 2: Research design and methods

2.1 Problem definition and research design approach

In this thesis, I aim to answer the question: How do ideas, through discourse, influence the adoption of workfare activation policies in different welfare regimes? I address the puzzle of the convergence among welfare states to embrace workfare activation policies despite them having differing welfare state ideologies. Dissimilar welfare regime types are expected to handle differently in similar circumstances (Hay, 2002). However, over the years there has been a tendency to implement similar workfare activation policies among European welfare states. Using the activation regime typologies specified by Barbier & Ludwig-Mayerhofer (2014), I look at two countries in this study that represent the liberal and universal activation regimes, namely the United Kingdom and the Netherlands respectively. To answer my research question, I employ a within case research method called the crucial case research design by looking at a most-likely case and least-likely case. Ultimately, I use process tracing, which is a case study research technique that uses evidence identified from studying the case to make inferences about causal explanations about that case (Bennett & Checkel, 2014, Toshkov, 2016). As it regards the testing of ideational theories, it is important to look for evidence that demonstrates that political actors were influenced by their ideas and that those ideas were not solely the result of exogenous factors (Jacobs, 2014). I do not make a causal inference about the relationship between ideas and workfare activation policies. I am describing how ideas play a role in gaining acceptance. I, therefore, looked for sufficient and necessary conditions contained in the coordinative and communicative discourse of political actors. Firstly, it is necessary that the coordinative and communicative discourse that I analyze show evidence of ideas playing a role in the adoption of the policy. Secondary, to be sufficient, this evidence should show the liberal activation regime communicating ideas such as "work first", "make work pay", and "gain independence from welfare". Likewise, the universal activation regime should communicate along the lines of: "providing opportunities for the underprivileged", "solidarity", an "equality".

2.2 Conceptualization and operationalization of variables

In this section, I break down the concepts that I use in this study so that there is clarity about my interpretation of them, and how I measure them. Returning once again to the research question, I identified the following variables that are to be measured in this study, and present them in the table below:  ideas/ discourse (independent variable),  workfare activation policies (dependent variable),  welfare state (independent variable).

Variables Definition/ Dimensions Indicators/Examples Conceptualization

Ideas Beliefs which  Cognitive ideas Liberal ideas: communicate what (logical – does it fit people want, what within the institution)  Benefits are only they deem  Normative ideas for the neediest appropriate, (appropriate – does it people legitimate and make sense)  The labor market proper (Béland & should be the first Cox, 2011, p. 3). source of support

Social democratic ideas:

 All citizens in need of support may apply for benefits  Benefits should help participants to play an equal role in society

Discourse The interactive  Coordinative Liberal discourse: process of the discourse exchange of ideas (communication  Phrases such as: (Schmidt 2002, among peers) “work first” and 2008, 2011).  Communicative “make work pay” discourse  Seek employment (communication to first before seeking the public) welfare  Be independent of welfare/ you can make it on your own

Social democratic discourse:

 Duty to society so everyone that can work, should work  We need to provide opportunities for the underprivileged  Words: solidarity, equality

Workfare Workfare:  Stricter conditions  Strict job search activation  Efforts to employ the requirements policies A work first least employable  Penalties for non- approach that  Less generous benefit compliance mixes labor market provision  Subsidized jobs for participation and the youth or social protection disabled efforts.  Lower benefits  Shorter benefits duration

Activation:  Educational  Job training programs programs Programs that  Work programs  Private sector promote and assist  Entrepreneurship subsidies the unemployed to programs  Start-up grants return to work  Direct employment in public sector jobs  Job search assistance such as counseling and monitoring

Welfare A system of social  Liberal Liberal welfare state: state protection provided  Universal by the government Means-tested, non- to assuage social generous benefits risks Universal welfare state:

Universal benefits, generous benefits

2.3 Case selection

Case selection has two objectives: representativeness and variation (Gerring, 2007). The former alluding to how well the case(s) selected can be said to represent the population for which inferences are made, and the latter speaks to the strength of the causal relationship being studied. With the view to achieving these goals, I have elected to carry out a crucial case selection approach, which is based on how well the case selected fits the theory. Moreover, the most- and least-likely case design allows for me to select a case based on the independent variables or X (ideas/ discourse and welfare state regime), the dependent variable or Y (workfare activation policies), and/or the control variables Z (Gerring, 2007). The control variables in this case are factors that can also have a causal influence on the development of workfare activation policies, such as institutional factors (example: previously implemented policies, and partisanship), sociological (example: aging, and the changing family) and economic factors (example: economic crashes) (Bonoli, 2010; Pascual & Magnusson, 2007). I keep these factors constant and focus on discourse (Toshkov, 2016). Because I wanted to find out how ideas influence workfare policies in disparate welfare states, I selected two countries, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands13, which represent the liberal and universal activation regimes specified by Barbier and Ludwig-Mayerhofer (2004). The United Kingdom is considered a liberal welfare state (Arts & Gelissen, 2002), and the Netherlands is considered a social democratic welfare state (idem). The United Kingdom's benefits system is means-tested to provide for only the most deserving and is not very generous. The Netherlands's welfare system provides state-funded universal benefits and is generous, with benefits that are close to minimum wage. Consistent with the abovementioned theories, the liberal activation regime places emphasis on commodification (i.e.: dependence on the labor market), where the universalistic activation regime places the focus is decommodification (i.e.: dependence on the welfare state in the form of social policies and social insurance once work falls away) (Mascini, Soentken, & Van der Veen, 2012). The two cases offered the opportunity to compare two welfare states of which one is, or rather should be, (theoretically) receptive, i.e.: the United Kingdom, and the other not receptive, i.e.: the Netherlands, to workfare activation approaches.

13 I would have preferred to have included a third country, for example, France (which represents the conservative welfare state regime), in my comparison. This would have been a better fit with Esping-Andersen's typology and thus strengthen any inferences I make on the wider population of welfare states. However, though Barbier and Ludwig-Mayerhofer acknowledge that there may be a third activation regime typology to represent the conservative welfare regime identified by Esping-Andersen in the Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, they have not identified a third activation regime typology that fits.

Secondly, I looked closer at a specific workfare activation policy in these countries. I selected workfare activation policies in the 1990s that occurred around the time when there was a shift in thinking about the welfare state from passive to active and when the European Employment Strategy was released (Deeming, 2015; Mascini, Soentken, & Van der Veen, 2012; Verhoeven & Tonkens, 2013). In the United Kingdom, I study the New Deal for Young People, and in the Netherlands, I look at the ‘Wet Inschakeling Werkzoekenden 14)”, which were both implemented in 1998 in their respective countries. Moreover, both the governments in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were social democratic and came into power after a long period of conservative rule.

2.4 Data collection sources

In section 2.2, I explained that the coordinative and communicative discourse can be found in written sources. Thus, my principal data collection method was to investigate primary sources. These primary sources consist of the following:

 Official legislation of the New Deal for Young People and Wet Inschakeling Werkzoekenden.  Spoken and written texts by the political actors that were instrumental in bringing about the policy. These are Tony Blair (Prime Minister) and Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer) in the United Kingdom, and Wim Kok (Prime Minister) and Ad Melkert (Minister of Social Affairs and Employment) in the Netherlands. The discourse texts consisted of the following: o Speeches o Political manifestos o Pre-election debates 15 o Governmental debates between proponents and opponents in the House of Commons/ Lords in the United Kingdom and the First and Second Chambers in the Netherlands o Newspaper and television interviews

14 In English, loosely translated, this is the unemployed activation act. It is the law governing the activation of young people and the long-term unemployed. 15 I included pieces of evidence before the legislation, such as pre-election debates and political manifestos to gauge beliefs before the implementation of the workfare policies.

The following table outlines the specific pieces of evidence found for each data source.

New Deal for Young People Wet Inschakeling Werkzoekenden

Speeches Tony Blair’s Leader’s speech, Wim Kok’s Den Uyl-lezing in Brighton 1995 (Blair, 1995) 1995 (Kok, 1995)

(Communicative discourse) (Communicative discourse)

Gordon Brown introducing NDYP to the House of Commons (HANSARD, 1997 a)

(Coordinative discourse)

Political Political manifesto Labour Party: Political manifesto PvdA: Wat men manifestos New Labour Because Britain bindt – Verkiezingsprogramma deserves better (Labour Party, 1994-1998 (PvdA, 1994) 1997)

(Communicative discourse) (Communicative discourse)

Election Question Time - Tony Blair Verkiezingsdebat 1994 (Youtube, debates Hustings, 24 April 1997 (YouTube, 1994) 1997 b) (Communicative discourse) (Communicative discourse)

Governmental Welfare-to-work strategy debate in Het wetsvoorstel Regeling voor de debates the House of Commons totstandkoming van een (HANSARD, 1997 b) gemeentelijk werkfonds voor voorzieningen ter bevordering van (Coordinative discourse) de toetreding tot het arbeidsproces van langdurig werklozen en jongeren (Wet inschakeling werkzoekenden) (Handelingen II 1996-1997, 1997 )

(Coordinative discourse)

Welfare-to-work Strategy debate in Het wetsvoorstel Regeling voor de the House of Commons totstandkoming van een (HANSARD, 1997 c) gemeentelijk werkfonds voor voorzieningen ter bevordering van (Coordinative discourse) de toetreding tot het arbeidsproces van langdurig werklozen en jongeren (Wet inschakeling werkzoekenden) (Handelingen I, 1997-1998, 1997 ).

(Coordinative discourse)

Interviews Panorama: The Leader Interviews - Werk, werk en nog eens werk' Tony Blair (07.04.97) (27.05.95) (Panorama, 1997) Interview met Minister van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid: Ad (Communicative discourse) Melkert (Melkert, 1995)

(Communicative discourse)

Position paper Working paper No. 2 “Europe, the third way, die neue Mitte” (Blair & Schröder, 1998)

(Coordinative discourse)

The United Kingdom

 Paper on the Third Way

The paper by Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder can be characterized as coordinative discourse. The target of Blair and Schröder seemed aimed at European government, evidenced in the following statement: “We invite all social democrats in Europe not to let this historic opportunity for renewal pass by” (Blair & Schröder, 1998, pp. 12)

 The pre-election interview with Tony Blair in Hustings

The Hustings interview was a platform for members of the public throughout Britain to ask questions to Tony Blair before the 1997 elections. This can be categorized as communicative discourse.

 Panorama interview

Tony Blair sat down to an interview on the television program Panorama with David Dimbleby in April 1997. This interview was very combative with Tony Blair being forced to defend his position on various issues. Because his audience was ultimately the general public, this text can be characterized as communicative discourse.

 Leader's speech to Labour Party congress in Brighton 1995

This speech was delivered at a Labour party congress, so essentially he was speaking to his peers. It was particularly geared towards unifying the party and centralizing the goals. I label this text as coordinative discourse.

 Speech by Gordon Brown officially presenting New Deal

The New Deal was formally presented during Gordon Brown’s address to the House of Commons. The goal was to lay out the financial spinal cord for the new Labour Party’s policy ideas. This discourse was therefore coordinative.

 Political manifesto new Labour Party

This political manifesto was written for the general public. It highlights all the areas where the new Labour party wanted to implement new legislation or carry out reforms on existing policies. The manifesto was written for voters, and can, therefore, be characterized as communicative.

 Welfare-to-work Strategy debate with Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown (cc1053-4)

This debate took place in the House of Commons on the 21st of March 2007, where Gordon Brown answered questions from his peers about the workings of the reform. The discourse was coordinative.

 Welfare-to-work Strategy debate with Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown continued (c1066) This was a continuation of the debate above.

The Netherlands

 Wim Kok’s Den Uyl Lecture The Den Uyl lecture is an annual interdisciplinary event where prominent speakers from the cultural, scientific and political fields provide a lecture to the public about perspectives from the aforementioned areas. The goal is to foster progressive thinking about society, both nationally and internationally. The lecture given by former Prime

Minister Wim Kok on December 11th, 1995 can be characterized as communicative discourse.

 1994 pre-election debate with the leaders of the five biggest parties The election debate of 1994 was held in the Great Hall of the Second Chamber between the biggest political parties at the time: PvdA, represented by Wim Kok, D66 represented by Hans van Mierlo, CDA represented by Elco Brinkman, Groenlinks represented by Ina Brouwer, the VVD represented by Fits Bolkestein. Members of the general public attended the debate. Because the goal of the debate was to convince the audience, I characterize this discourse as communicative.

 Interview van Ad Melkert, VolksKrant This interview for the Volkskrant, which has a history of being center-left. Reporters Arnold Koper and Milja de Zwart interviewed the then Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, Ad Melkert. The interview focus on a range of subjects, from Europe to immigration. I centered on the areas relevant to this study, namely the social security system. The central message of Mr. Melkert was his party’s stance on social security: the balance between work and the provision of opportunities. This discourse was communicative.

 PvdA election program 1994 -1998 The election program of the PvdA was an extensive text written so that public could get to know their political standpoints. It is communicative discourse.

 Debate in the Eerste Kamer on the 25th of November 1997 and the 2nd of December 1997

This was the first plenary discussion with members of the Eerste Kamer on the 25th of November 1997, following a series of correspondence back and forth to elucidate certain areas of the WIW law. In this debate, Minister Melkert was questioned about a number of structural issues about the new law, particularly about the amount of the minimum wage and the municipalities' role in the whole scheme. This is coordinative discourse. This is followed by a follow-up discussion, which took place on the 2nd of December 1997, two days before the WIW was signed into law on the fourth of December 1997.

The debate was primarily geared towards addressing issues regarding the financing of it, particularly providing municipalities with a work found that would allow them to carry out the law. The discourse is focused on convincing his peers, therefore I characterize the discourse as coordinative.

Furthermore, I looked at secondary data such as journal articles and books to gain an understanding of the background story of the reforms in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Moreover, these secondary data sources provided me with information on the control variables. The control variables are variables that I have identified in this study that could also influence the dependent variable, i.e.: workfare activation policies. I expound on this in the ensuing section.

2.5 Method of analysis

I use a discourse analysis strategy to analyze spoken and written texts. The underlying principle within discourse analysis is that texts have the ability to create the specific versions of the phenomena and processes they describe (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). In other words, texts provide a particular way of talking and thinking about certain aspects of the world (idem). One of the first steps in discourse analysis is then to look at the ways specific text are constructed, looking at key concepts and then examine their mutual relationship (Wæver, 2005). “One asks how the text argues, not what it says” (Wæver, 2005, p. 41). My premise is that by looking at the framing of discourse, as this creates the context for how discourse is presented and interpreted (the classification of ideas), I am able to describe how the meaning behind the text. The discourse analysis framework presented by Deborah Stone (2012) uses different techniques of classification. She maintains that political actors utilize symbols, numbers, causes, interests, and decisions in their political discourse to express and defend their categorizations. Symbols can be anything that stands for something. The meaning depends on how people use, interpret and respond to it (Stone, 2012, p. 157). An example of a symbol is, for instance, a rainbow. For some, it may mean a Biblical promise, for others it represents the homosexual and

32 transgender movement. Symbols have three forms: stories16, synecdoche17 and metaphors. Numbers is another way to create classification because “a common way to define a policy problem is to measure it” (Stone, 2012, p. 183). Numbers can work like metaphors because it helps political actors to compare policies and define how big or small a problem is. Another classification strategy lies in identifying causes, which is essentially providing blame stories with one group of people being the oppressors and another group being victims. The blame story is usually achieved through the use of a combination of symbols and numbers (Stone, 2012, p. 207). Interests are “people and organizations who have a stake in an issue or affected by it” (Stone, 2012, p. 229) Political actors try to win acceptance by speaking on behalf of or advocating for the affected group(s). Lastly, decisions are presented in the form of a story where the protagonist, i.e.: the decision maker, presents an answer to a dilemma (Stone, 2012, p. 250). It is then presented as “inspirational visions of a future” in an effort to win support (Stone, 2012, p. 252). I looked at each piece of evidence and analyzed according to the methods of classification in the table18 below:

Symbols Stories of decline

Stories of change

Synecdoche: Horror stories

Metaphors

Numbers Defining a problem by measuring

Causes Blame stories usually using symbols and numbers

Interests Stories of standing up for the rights of others/ defending/ advocating for others

Decisions Stories of inspiration/ solving problems

16 Stories can be further broken down into stories of decline and stories of change (Stone, 2012). 17 This is also presented in the form of a story where a small part of a policy problem is used to represent the whole (Stone, 2012, p. 159). 18 I only highlight examples of the methods of classification.

Therefore, the evidence I am looking for is contained in how political actors frame their ideas in the forms symbols, numbers, causes, interests, and decisions (Stone, 2012) to construct and legitimize their decisions. Furthermore, my observations are based on the theory, and the goal is not only to show similarities and/or difference but also to describe how ideas influence workfare activation policies (Jacobs, 2014). I judge according along two dimensions. Firstly, the nature of the ideas, i.e. does the framing justify policies and programs according to logic and necessity, and/or how appropriate they are in light of public values and principles. Secondly, is the framing liberal, communicating along the lines of work first or independence from the market, or universalistic, communicating along the lines of providing opportunities for the underprivileged or social solidarity.

2.6 Addressing threats to inference

In any research, it is important to justify any claims made about the relationship between the variables we measure. Essentially this comes down to an issue of validity, i.e.: am I measuring what I am supposed to measure, and are the conclusions that I am making, as a result, correct (Gerring, 2007). Though there are many forms of validity tests in social science research, there are two practical ways to think about validity: in terms of ‘bias’ and ‘error’ (Norris, 1997). Two main concepts within research regarding validity, relevant for this study, are external and internal validity. External validity, simply put, is concerned with threats to generalization. It is often said that selection bias is a vital aspect of research, particularly qualitative research. Internal validity concerns itself with whether a study was carried out in the right way to demonstrate the relationship between the variables hypothesized about (Gerring, 2007). Thus, in reference to this research, does this study show how ideas, measured through discourse, influence the adoption of activation policies. In the first instance, I did not select my cases solely based on the dependent variable (workfare activation policies, even though the crucial case research selection design allows for it), but on the independent variable: welfare states. The two cases were selected because of their representativeness according to the abovementioned theory, which is a very important aspect of carrying out the crucial case research design. Moreover, the reforms that I choose as units of analysis were selected based on the time period they occurred. Once more, both reforms were implemented in the 1990s, a time when workfare activation policies started gaining immense popularity. Finally, I tried to collect as much evidence as possible from different data sources in order to have a broader comparison, considering the small N in this study.

In addition, after carrying out preliminary research to understand the cases, I identified institutional, sociological and economic factors that can influence social policies (Bonoli, 2010; Serrano Pascual & Magnusson, 2007). Secondary research showed that control variables that can influence workfare activation policies are: institutional make up, i.e. partisanship (Allan & Scruggs, 2004), sociological influence, i.e.: the configuration of the post-industrial labor market, family & gender role change) (Castles et al, 2010; Iversen & Wren, 1998; Walters, 1997), economic influence, i.e.: financial crisis (Starke, Kaasch, & Van Hooren, 2014; Stevenson, 2001), and supranational influences, i.e.: the European Employment Strategy and the OECD Jobs study report (Hemerijck et al, 2013; Van Vliet & Koster, 2011). Again I understand that these factors could also have an influence on workfare activation policies, so I keep them constant and focus only on the role of ideas, measured through discourse, on the adoption of these social policies. Nevertheless, I do recognize that the research could have been strengthened by comparing more countries, by doing a comparison of reforms in different periods of time, or under different leadership (Schmidt & Radaelli, 2004). Moreover, ‘welfare states' in this study is operationalized as liberal and universalistic activation regimes. These correspond to the liberal and social democratic welfare states identified by Gøsta Esping-Andersen (1990). Though Barbier and Ludwig-Mayerhofer (2004) build on Esping-Andersen's welfare state classification, they have not identified a third activation regime to represent the corporatist welfare state. This makes generalizations about welfare states difficult. Nonetheless, I realize that because of the small N nature of my study, generalizability would have been difficult anyway. Instead, I want to focus on having good examinations of the cases selected. What’s more, I looked at necessary and sufficient conditions contained in the evidence that demonstrate the expectations highlighted above. A threat to the validity of my research is not accessing private communications which could reveal the “true” beliefs of the political actors involved. I realize that the discourse I use as evidence could have been strategic to win elections. In sum, threats to internal and external validity could be problematic in any research. I hope to have addressed these through the crucial case selection research design which allowed me to select cases on the independent variables, i.e.: ‘ideas’ (measured through discourse) and ‘welfare states’, as well as the dependent variable, i.e.: workfare activation policies. In addition, the process tracing research technique allowed me to trace the ideational processes of political actors while ignoring confounding factors.

Chapter 3: Findings

3.1 The background environment

The first noteworthy observation is that in the 1990s, both the Netherlands (1994) and the United Kingdom (1997) fell under leftist rule after having been run by conservative governments for over a decade. However, while the United Kingdom experienced the landslide victory of the new Labour Party under Tony Blair, the PvdA actually lost twelve seats in the House of Representatives but still managed to win its place in government because the previous conservative government, CDA, suffered greater loss with twenty seats (Hippie, Lucardie, & Voerman, 1995). A second observation is that in both countries, the previous Conservative governments started some form of activation of their labor markets. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party introduced an employment policy called Restart in 1986, where counselors periodically reviewed the positions of Job Seeker's Allowance participants to see where assistance could be provided (White & Lakey, 1992). The New Deal for Young People was an amendment of the Job Seeker’s Allowance. Job search became a mandatory element of the policy (Van Reenen, 2004). In the Netherlands, the 1980s camped with high public debt as well as a stagnating economy, resulting in high unemployment, with youth employment peaking in 1985. The then government, under Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, introduced a series of policies to address unemployment and increasing labor market participation (Van Oorschot, 2002). These reforms were principally driven by budgetary considerations (Sociaal-Economische Raad, 2000). The social security system in the United Kingdom was very centralized where almost all social insurance and social assistance benefits are administered by the executive agencies of the Department of Work and Pensions (Walker & Wiseman, 2003). In contrast, the Netherlands’ social security system was characterized by three things: (1) the privatization of public services, (2) unemployment and disability risks were no longer the responsibility of the state but became the responsibility of the employer and employee, and (3) the municipalities were tasked with caring for and reintegrating people without work (Eleveld & Van Vliet, 2013; Sociaal- Economische Raad, 2000). Lastly, in the 1990s in both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, there seemed to be public support for the welfare state (Kaase & Newton, 1995; Van der Veen, Achterberg, & Raven, 2012). Social survey studies in both countries showed that people believed that benefits

36 were too low, and therefore objected to welfare retrenchment policies (Deeming, 2015; Van der Veen, Achterberg, & Raven, 2012).

3.2 Tracing the discourse

I ask a series of questions that help to guide my analysis. I feel that this important because “the descriptive component of process tracing begins not with observing change or sequence, but rather with taking good snapshots at a series of specific moments” (Collier, 2011). I followed three guiding questions in order to trace the process of ideas. Each question was meant to be a snapshot in the development of the discourse surrounding the case from which I could analyze using the discursive framework provided by Deborah Stone. I provide a few examples in the following section, however, a fuller description of examples for every data source is available in the Appendix.

 Question 1: What are the prevailing ideas? When can we first observe ideational influence, and how was this communicated?  Question 2: How have these ideas been translated into plans for national policy?  Question 3: How was the discourse around the time of adoption?

3.2.1 The United Kingdom – The New Deal for Young People

After losing a series of elections to the Conservative party over a span of eighteen years, the Labour party, under the leadership of Tony Blair, made a decision to rebrand the party (Sloam, 2007). The Labour party became New Labour and contested the 1997 general elections under the banner: ‘New Labour because Britain deserves better.’ This words ‘new’ and ‘change’ were recurring themes for New Labour throughout the elections. Mr. Blair often referred to a new way of doing things.

“Today’s Labour party has changed…The reason we changed the Labour party is that we can take this party forward…We are going to put right what went wrong…new Labour we are running on, new Labour we will be” - Tony Blair, at the Hustings public interview (YouTube, 1997 b).

“From the moment I came into the Labour Party I have argued that it had to change and modernize itself”…“ It is very much what I believe in. It is very much my own creation…” Tony Blair, during the television program Panorama with David Dimbleby (Panorama, 1997)

Mr. Blair framed this new way as a story of change, particularly expressed in the phrasing ‘moving forward'. In this text, he is indicating movement from one position, evolving and becoming more progressive. The party wanted to be seen as forward-thinking and modern – a party that, as he put it, could rectify the problems of the past. In addition, the word ‘new’ was also symbolic of the shift in ideology which accompanied the rebranding of the party. According to Blair, the ideals contained in social democratic philosophy was the way forward. This shift in ideology played a central role in how the leader of the Labour party saw the welfare state, and how he ultimately expressed himself about it. Blair presented the social democratic Third Way thinking as an answer or a way to modernize his party and the country. This is the strategy called decisions in Stone's framework, where political actors present a story of inspiration or portray themselves as having the answers to problems.

“Ideas of what is ‘left-wing’ should never become an ideological straitjacket” (Blair & Schröder, 1998).

“Our aim is to modernise the welfare state, not dismantle it: to embark on new ways of expressing solidarity and responsibility to others without basing the motivation for economic activity on pure undiluted self-interest.” (Idem)

“A welfare system that puts limits on an individual’s ability to find a job must be reformed.” (Idem)

Besides Blair's story of change, he used other symbols such as metaphors and synecdoche to gain acceptance. For example, in an address to his own party at the Labour Congress in Brighton, in the first text example below, he uses a war metaphor by referring to the elections as a battle to be won. Moreover, the phrasing ‘soul of a nation' is also very symbolic. “The coming election is not a struggle for political power. It is a battle for the soul of a nation and I say to you, my party, be strong and of good courage.” (Blair, 1995)

“I have spent 16 years being angry, passionate and indignant about young people huddled in doorways, families made wretched by unemployment, the poor unable to make ends meet” (Blair, 1995)

The soul is representative of a living organism. So, speaking about the nation in this way humanizes it in the minds of people. If the nation can live, it can also die (under the wrong political party). It is as if he is trying to reassure his party about the change in ideological course. He even uses Bible-inspired texts such as "be strong and of good courage”. In the second example, Blair uses a mix of synecdoche and interests. He paints a bleak picture of the young people of Britain, which fits more in a Charles Dickens novel than the twenty-first century. By phrasing the situation in this way, he tried to show how bad the situation is for the unemployed and underprivileged, and clearly established his party on the side of these groups. In this piece of text, Tony Blair focused on presenting his vision and unifying his party. It was particularly necessary for those in his party that did not yet embrace his social democratic ideas.

"...for some of you, new Labour has been painful and there is no greater pain to be endured in politics than the birth of a new idea, but I believe in it and I want to tell you why. Socialism for me was never about nationalization or the power of the state, not just about economics or even politics. It is a moral purpose to life, a set of values, a belief in society, in co-operation, in achieving together what we cannot achieve alone." (Blair, 1995)

After winning the election in a landslide victory, the Labour Party introduced an expansive workfare program called the ‘New Deal’ to reform the unemployment benefit system instituted by the previous government (Van Reenen, 2004). The previous government, the

Conservative Party, introduced an employment policy called Restart in 1986, where counselors periodically reviewed the positions of Job Seeker’s Allowance participants to see where assistance could be provided (White & Lakey, 1992). Another strategy of categorization in political discourse is to create stories of blame. This where the reason and/or responsibility for the problem is given to opponents. The Conservative party, having ruled for almost twenty years at the time, was often blamed for the economic and social problems in Britain.

“I love my country and hate what the Tories have done to it. Every promise ever made has been broken - taxes, unemployment, crime, the health service, education. It is a record of incompetence and dishonesty on an epic scale.” (Blair, 1995)

“ to give Britain a different political choice: the choice between a failed Conservative government, exhausted and divided in everything other than its desire to cling on to power, and a new and revitalised Labour Party that has been resolute in transforming itself into a party of the future.” - Political manifesto New Labour

This name ‘New Deal’ in itself holds much symbolism as well. In April 1997, there were 615900 unemployed people claiming unemployment benefits (Office for National Statistics). The New Deal offered a chance for people to provide for themselves, with the help of the government, where needed. The government provides opportunities for the unemployed, and the unemployed make use of those opportunities.

"This new alliance of interests to build on `one nation Britain' can only be done on a basis

of a new bargain between us all as members of society...We should reject the rootless morality whose symptom is a false choice between bleeding hearts and couldn't care less, when what we need is one grounded in the core British values, the sense of balance between rights and duties." (Blair, 1997)

"The basis of this modern civic society is an ethic of mutual responsibility or duty. It is

something for something. A society where we play by the rules. You only take out if you

put in. That's the bargain." (Idem)

The New Deal targeted specific unemployed groups that were especially vulnerable to inefficiencies in the labor market such as young people, single mothers and the disabled

(HANSARD, 1997 a). One of the first policies presented under this New Deal program was the New Deal for Young People. The New Deal for Young People was one of the highest expenditures within the UK National Action Plan for Employment, totaling £2.6 billion (Secretary of State for Social Security, 1999). The introduction of reforms and particularly the New Deal, of which The New Deal for Young People is a part, was formally introduced by Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who presented the New Deal scheme in his first budget presented to parliament on July 1997 (Jarvis, 1997). According to Chancellor Brown, the New Deal is financed by the windfall tax on privatized utilities. The windfall tax was expected to raise £5.2 billion, the New program was estimated to have cost around £2.6 billion (Jarvis, 1997; Secretary of State for Social Security, 1999). The Labour Party gave the large scope of their reform a central place in their election strategy. This is a classification strategy in Stone's framework where a story is framed by describing the problem in terms that can be measured.

“We will get 250,000 young unemployed off benefit and into work” (Labour Party, 1997)

Another noteworthy point is the inclusiveness of the new policy. The liberal activation regime is known to be a limited welfare system that caters primarily to the neediest. In both the coordinative and communicative discourse, the Labour party spoke often about creating opportunities for ‘all’ and ‘everyone’. The inclusiveness is more characteristic of the universal activation regime.

“…everyone in need of work should have the opportunity to work. Secondly, we must ensure that work pays. Thirdly, everyone who seeks to advance through employment and education must be given the means to advance. So we will create a new ladder of opportunity that will allow the many, by their own efforts, to benefit from opportunities once open only to a few.” (HANSARD, 1997 a)

The New Deal for Young People had three objectives: (1) to provide active labor market policies, which would provide bespoke assistance in order to increase chances of employment and reduce long-term unemployment; (2) make work pay policies, which would reform the tax and benefit system; and, (3) policies that reduce barriers to work, which are empowerment programs aimed at increasing and maintaining the British workforce (Department of Work and Pensions, 2004; Lindsay & Mailand, 2003). Beneficiaries claiming the Job Seeker’s Allowance

41 for six months or more were mandated to take part in the scheme, and could not continue to claim the unemployment benefits without making concentrated efforts to find paid work (Van Reenen, 2004). How did it work? After six months of unemployment, young people aged 18 to 24 are obliged to enter the Gateway program of the New Deal for Young People (Department of Work and Pensions, 2004).

Figure 1: Schema of the process for beneficiaries of the New Deal for Young People

The Gateway program lasted four months and was a period of extensive job search under personal advisors, where applicants and advisors meet once every two weeks to discuss the labor market position of the applicants. After this period, applicants have two options: (1) find paid work or (2) enter a 6 month to a year period of subsidized employment, training or education. Once this period is complete, applicants can, again, either find paid work or receive further advice and support in finding a job. If an applicant refused work or did not attend a job training program, they risked receiving reduced benefits or losing their social assistance altogether (Department of Work and Pensions, 2004; Lindsay & Mailand, 2003; Van Reenen, 2004). Despite the expansive and inclusive nature when explaining the vision of the policy,

The Labour party clearly stayed close to its liberal ideals when communicating the practical working of the reform.

“With those new opportunities for young people come new responsibilities. There will be no fifth option—to stay at home on full benefit. So when they sign on for benefit, they will be signing up for work. Benefits will be cut if young people refuse to take up the opportunities.” – Gordon Brown (HANSARD, 1997 c)

“As my Budget made clear, there are three elements of our welfare-to-work strategy and our reform of the welfare state: first, encouraging the long-term unemployed into work; secondly, providing opportunities for men and women to gain skills; and, thirdly, making work pay.” – Gordon Brown (HANSARD, 1997 b)

3.2.2 The Netherlands – Wet Inschakeling Werkzoekenden

In 1994, elections were held in the Netherlands which saw the first victory for leftist party PvdA (Partij van de Arbeid or workers’ party) in over a decade. Former union leader, Wim Kok became prime minister of the Netherlands and became the leader of the first “Purple Cabinet”, which is indicative of the mix of social-democratic (the PvdA) and liberal (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD) and D66 ) ideologies (Irwin, 1995, 1999). Similar to the Labour party in the United Kingdom, Minister Kok’s Labour party also broke with old ideas to embrace social democratic ideals prior to elections. These views colored his view of the welfare state as well.

"Shaking off ideological feathers is not only a problem for a political party like ours, it is also a liberating experience in certain ways.” (Kok, 1995)

“Social democracy has to be a bridge to the middle, it cannot be any different, and we should also not want it any other way.” (Idem)

“Social democracy can and must be distinguished by bringing its convincing positive appreciation for the services of a broad welfare state accompanied by an emphasis on austerity and effectiveness in dealing with community resources.” (Idem)

"Benefits should be converted into socially meaningful activities ...at people choose work above their own prosperity” –Wim Kok (Youtube, 1998)

“This welfare state has contributed significantly to the quality of life in our country and can still withstand comparison with neighboring countries…That does not take away the fact the support of the welfare state is now in all respects (financially, organizationally, culturally and morally) greatly weakened.” (PvdA, 1994)

In the example in the text box above, we see that social democratic principles are presented as the way forward. He uses symbolism, expressed through a metaphor, to frame social democracy as a bridge. This is symbolic for a way to connect separated entities or solve divides. This bridge that social democracy brings, according to Mr. Kok, was necessary to address this issues of society. In the examples below, he paints the picture of a society that is struggling with the challenges of the future and the loss of security. These are examples of the

44 use of metaphors and stories of decline. A good example from the text below is ‘scaffolding around the welfare state'. It is almost poetic in its expression and suggests that the welfare state is about to collapse. In the second and third example, he talks about the frameworks and the lifestyles upon which people have come to depend. In his framing, he is saying something needs to be done before these frameworks totally disappear. It is creating a sense of urgency so that the listeners or readers suspend critical thinking enough to accept the policymakers' decision as the right thing to do.

“Scaffolding is being put around the welfare state… it will take years before the General Assistance Act will lay the floor in the house that will later be called the welfare state.” (Kok, 1995)

“The disappearance of trusted frameworks, internationally and domestically - whether it be political parties, traditional forms of society, the church, lifelong job guarantees and so on - leads to a feeling of uncertainty among broad sections of the population.” (Idem)

The focus of this cabinet was on economic growth and particularly decreasing unemployment (Hemerijck & Visser, 2001). In 1997 there were 415 000 registered benefit participants according to the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS, 2018). One of the policies put in place under this government, by the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment at the time, Adrianus ‘Ad’ Melkert Melkert, was the Wet Inschakeling Werkzoekenden (WIW). The WIW was introduced to parliament on the 28th of November 1996 and implemented on December 4th, 1997. This bill was premised on the idea that the long-term unemployed, particularly young people dependent on social benefits, should be encouraged to participate in activation programs in an effort to boost the labor market and prevent social exclusion.19 (AN-i, 2018; Memorie van Toelichting WIW, 1996). The political party, unlike its British counterparts, did not rely on a blame-shifting strategy but a blaming the victim story. This is where people who are ‘suffering from the problem’ have to change or do things differently.

19 The Melkert-jobs were introduced in 1994 and were meant for the long-term unemployed. These subsidized jobs lasted at least six months in order to prevent employers from only offering short-term contracts. Participants were paid minimum wage, with a maximum wage increase of 103% within the first year (AN-i, 2018). One of the major criticisms of the social policy that though there was a relatively easy influx to these jobs, people remained stuck in them and could not manage to get into regular paying jobs. The Melkert-jobs eventually became a part of the Wet Inschakelings Werkzoenden in 1997.

“citizens should prepare to change their way of life. Life in certain ways will become more expensive, harder and harder. It is no longer that the next generation will automatically be better off than the previous one.” (PvdA, 1994)

“But the most essential point that I have centered on from the very first day is work, work and more work” (Melkert, 1995)

The WIW targeted young people aged twenty-three years and younger, and older individuals that were long-term unemployed, which is unemployed for longer than one year. The aim of WIW was to help the job seeker to gain experience so that he or she could have a better chance to find regular work. The work experience was gained in the public, non-profit or private sector. If and when the WIW participant found regular work, he or she was obliged to leave his/ her WIW placement and take the position offered (Memorie van Toelichting WIW, 1996). In both the communicative and coordinative discourse the Dutch Labour Party clearly identified the social group of interest: the young and long-term unemployed. The goal of such as strategy is to show that the party understand the problem and are on the sides of the ones that are ‘suffering'. Interestingly, this discourse was not equalizing, which is characteristic of the universal activation regime. Instead, it creates a negative image of the people seeking help.

“Unemployment is largely concentrated in people with little or no education” (PvdA, 1994)

“some people are at such a distance from the labor market that it is probably not realistic to assume that they can easily find a place on the regular labor market on their own” Ad Melkert, (Kamerstukken I, 25122, nr. 2e, 1997)

The WIW was financed along two lines. One, municipalities could declare a basic amount for each WIW employment relationship with the government. In 1998, that amount was fixed at Naf. 17.000, 00 per year. In some instances, the basic amount was not sufficient to fully finance a WIW employment relationship. Therefore, there was also a fixed budget for additional costs. However, this budget had to be used to cover the difference between the basic amount and the wage costs. This amount was called the standard amount. This standard amount differed annually and was based on whether the WIW participant was a young person or someone who was unemployed for more than a year, as well as the number of working hours (Kamerstukken

I, 25122, nr. 2e, 1997). The WIW policy was almost unanimously accepted by the coalition. The bill was supported by the CDA, however, there was some initial opposition from the VVD and D66 as they thought that the WIW would cause employers to want to employ WIW participants rather than offer regular job opportunities, and there were major concerns about the costs. In the example below, Minister Melkert framed the issue in a way that was acceptable for his political counterparts because he is controlling how they interpret the figures. Three million is a vast amount of money but in his phrasing, he diminished it by comparing it to the reach of the policy. Moreover, portraying himself as the middleman, classifying himself as the hero, creates a reassurance that he has the answers and will be responsible for any negative consequences.

“It is a fairly small amount. It involves 700 young people times NLG 4,000 per year. That is 3 mln” – Ad Melkert, (Kamerstukken I, 25122, nr. 2e, 1997)

“If organizers of national projects are of the opinion that problems will arise from the WIW, I am fully prepared to discuss this with them. I want to fulfill the function of intermediary in relation to the municipalities. I will make every effort to ensure that the good and useful work that has been achieved in the context of the experimentation scheme with the use of benefit funds can be continued in the WIW.” (Idem)

How did it work? A young person registered as a job seeker before he/ she becomes unemployed for a year and is then offered WIW employment at a public, non-profit or private organization. In order to secure unemployment benefits, he/ she had to take the WIW employment offer and was also obliged to cooperate in any activities that could result in finding regular work (AN-i, 2018). A WIW employment meant that the young person joined a WIW organization and received wages from that organization for the work he performs with these third parties. The WIW participant signed a work contract with the municipality and/or third party organizations within the public, non-profit and/or private sectors (AN-i, 2018). If a WIW participant received a placement at a third-party organization, the labor agreement would be between the WIW participant and that organization. The municipality did not mediate between the two (Memorie van Toelichting WIW, 1996). In principle, this lending out of services to the third party lasted 6 months, after which time, the young person would receive another WIW placement (AN-i, 2018). However, a young person would not receive the offer for a WIW

47 employment contract if he/ she qualified for a workplace at a ‘sociale werkvoorziening’ or a social employment facility20. Or if a social advisor believed that the young person was better off by doing other activities, such as educational training or gaining other work experience (for a minimum of 19 hours per week) (AN-i, 2018). For the Dutch Labour Party, the WIW was an avenue to prevent long-term dependency on benefits. The discourse surrounding the adoption of the policy was a mix of liberal and universal discourse. For example, Mr. Melkert communicates that his party does not believe that the labor market can offer jobs for everyone. This implies a belief the government will take care of those not provided for by the market. However, he communicates a work first approach and discourages dependency on the benefits.

“… the market does not have an answer to all developments, and that even in the case of a proper economic climate, as we see it in this period, the labor market, neither public nor private, can offer job opportunities for everyone.” – Ad Melkert (Kamerstukken I, 25122, nr. 2e, 1997)

“An extra effort is therefore necessary to prevent dependence on benefits and permanent dependency on benefits as much as possible.” (Idem)

20 This is a government provision that falls under the Wet Sociale Werkvoorziening or Social Employment Act. Under this provision, people with physical or psychological disability are provided with a suitable workplace. The Wet Sociale Werkvoorziening has been replaced by the Participtiewet since January 1st, 2015.

Chapter 4: Analysis

I followed three guiding questions in order to trace the process of ideas. Each question was meant to be a snapshot in the development of the discourse surrounding the case from which I could analyze using the discursive framework provided by Deborah Stone. I made the following observations. Question 1: What are the prevailing ideas? When can we first observe ideational influence, and how was this communicated? Firstly, evidence showed that in both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, the parties started placing emphasis on a social democratic ideology, which basic principles are freedom, justice, and solidarity. Social democracy and the Third Way often go hand-in-hand. Again, traditional ways of looking at welfare were either protective or where governments embraced a limited interference in the market strategy. The Third Way offered a middle ground: the government invested in its citizens and the citizens took up their duties to contribute to society. Therefore, under the social democratic ideology, the welfare state is one built on mutual obligations. In my view, the discourse on the shift in thinking was evident in both countries. The clearest example was the United Kingdom with the rebranding of the Labour party as new Labour. In the Netherlands, Wim Kok also spoke about leaving behind old ideologies and lauded the benefits of a social democratic approach in his famous Den Uyl lecture. It was necessary that there be evidence in the discourse about ideas in the adoption of the social policy. I feel this criterion was satisfied. I further said that for evidence to be sufficient, this evidence should show the liberal activation regime communicating ideas such as “work first”, “make work pay”, and “gain independence from welfare”. Likewise, the universal activation regime should communicate along the lines of: “providing opportunities for the underprivileged”, “solidarity”, an “equality”. Because of the adoption of social democratic ideas, I feel that the discourse was a mix of liberal and universal discourse, and therefore not sufficient. Question 2: How have these ideas been translated into plans for national policy? Both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands instituted policies that were expansive and contained opportunities for development through elements of education, training and work experience. The New Deal for Young people was a generous policy and aimed to help the young unemployed by equipping them with education and training. The WIW law in the Netherlands aimed to do the same thing. So, true the principles of the Third Way, on the one hand, the Labour parties in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands promoted the empowering and

49 challenging of individuals (social investment ), and on the other hand, it was clear that benefit recipients could no longer rely on the welfare state. They were encouraged to seek their own independence by entering the labor market. Question 3: How was the discourse around the time of implementation? I expected the United Kingdom, with its liberal activation ideology, to embrace workfare policies. Thus, framing discourse in a way that emphasized the independence of the welfare state. The Netherlands, as a universal activation regime, I expected to be less receptive to workfare policies, and the framing of discourse to emphasize equality and encourage personal contribution to society. However, I found no real consistency in the discourse surrounding the implementation of the workfare reforms in the two countries. So both my most-likely and least- likely cases were inconclusive. Yes, the political actors used the different framing strategies outlined above to win acceptance, but I observed that the framing was often mixed. In keeping with the social democratic ideologies, when talking about the overall vision and goals of the reforms the discourse was very inclusive focusing on freedom, justice, and solidarity (fitting with the universal activation regime). Then it came to the practical workings of the reforms, the discourse was very targeted and focused on welfare state independence (fitting with the liberal activation regime). It is important to point out the shift in thinking came at an auspicious time, i.e.: during the elections, after a long period of conservative rule. As it regards the coordinative discourse, portraying oneself as ‘new’, ‘progressive’ and ‘inclusive’ is appealing. Overall, both political parties in both countries portrayed themselves as problem solvers. They had a new idea and new plans of how to execute these ideas. Moreover, the inclusive and expansive portrayal of social policy could have resonated with the public as social survey studies in both countries, showed that people objected to welfare retrenchment policies. When it comes to the coordinative discourse, again there was a similarity in how these two parties legitimized their policy reforms. Both stressed to need to increase labor market participation because low participation presented a significant threat to the sustainability of the welfare state. So returning to what puzzled me in the first place, namely: two countries with different welfare state ideologies embracing the same approach to unemployment, I see that it not necessarily about the institutional make up per se but about the beliefs of political actors, and how they frame their discourse to gain acceptance. The way a political actor thinks will influence how he/ she speaks, and ultimately how he/ she tries to legitimize his/ her beliefs. Thus, in keeping with the theory, framing is essential.

Chapter 5: Conclusion

High unemployment as a result of the economic crisis in the 1980s caused many European governments to search for new welfare state strategies to replace the traditional protective way of doing things. For many governments, this meant the adoption of a social investment welfare state where government provided opportunities for development through education, training and work experience. This heralded a new era of an active welfare state – a shift from the passive. In the spirit of this change in thinking several European governments advocated social policy reforms in their national welfare states. Over the years, European countries, though having different welfare state ideologies, have come to embrace a workfare activation approach. In this dissertation, I wanted to describe how ideas play a role in the adoption of social policies in countries with disparate welfare ideologies. I studied policy reforms in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The United Kingdom represented the liberal activation regime and the Netherlands represented the universal activation regime. In 1997 the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, under Tony Blair's leadership, introduced the New Deal. In the Netherlands, the PvdA under, Wim Kok’s leadership brought the WIW law forward. However, whatever ideas policy actors presented had to fit with the ideological framework and be considered acceptable by their peers and the public. Both political parties had distinct ideas about the welfare state, under influence of social democratic ideals, which were ultimately translated in the aforementioned policies. Their ideas were adopted through the framing of the coordinative and communicative discourse. Both Labour parties in both countries used different methods of classification that were aimed at getting their peers and the public to accept their ideas. With every research, there are strengths and weaknesses. A strength in this study, I believe, is the internal validity. I was able to focus on the depth of the cases, giving me insight on the context of how the ideas unfolded and resulted in the adoption of the social policies. However, I cannot generalize to other activation welfare regimes. Firstly, the ideational variables were hard to define and operationalize clearly. Secondly, the ideas presented in this case were very specific and could have been strategic to win elections. Moreover, I was surprised at the similarities between the cases. The external validity could have been made stronger if I had included other countries with different welfare state ideologies and/or ideas over time in my comparison. Ideational research has proven useful in understanding change and supporting other forms of institutionalism in causal research. More studies should be carried out to help us

51 understand the different ways ideas influence, and even cause, political actors to behave in certain ways, and describe the contexts for why they do what they do.

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YouTube. (1997 b, April 24). Question Time - Tony Blair. Hustings. Retrieved on May 9, 2018, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5wXbnym3PE

YouTube. (1997, May 21). Tony Blair's first Prime Minister's questions: 21 May 1997 in the House of Lords. Retrieved on May 9, 2018, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MryC6qC3FYA

Appendix

Question 1: What are the prevailing ideas? When can we first observe ideational influence, and how was this communicated?

The United Kingdom

 Paper on the Third Way

Symbols Story of change:

“Third Way…we need to apply our politics within a new economic framework, modernised for today, where government does all it can to support enterprise but never believes it is a substitute for enterprise.”

Metaphor

“The state should not row, but steer: not so much control, as challenge”.

Numbers “In Britain the Welfare to Work programme has already enabled 95,000 young people to find work.”

Causes “Too often rights were elevated above responsibilities, but the responsibility of the individual to his or her family, neighbourhood and society cannot be offloaded on to the state.”

Interests “The politics of the New Centre and Third Way is about addressing the concerns of people who live and cope with societies undergoing rapid change – both winners and losers.”

“education must not be a ‘one-off’ opportunity: lifetime access to education and training and lifelong utilisation of their opportunities represent the most important security available in the modern world. Therefore, governments have a responsibility to put in place a framework that enables individuals to enhance their qualifications and to fulfil their potential.”

“People who have never had experience of work or who have been out of work for long periods lose the skills necessary to compete in the labour market. Prolonged unemployment also damages individual life chances in other ways and makes it more difficult for individuals to participate fully in society. A welfare system that puts limits on an individual’s ability to find a job must be reformed.”

Decisions “We face the same challenges – to promote employment and prosperity, to offer every individual the opportunity to fulfil their unique potential, to combat social exclusion and poverty, to reconcile material progress with environmental sustainability and our responsibility to future generations, to

tackle common problems that threaten the cohesion of society such as crime and drugs, and to make Europe a more effective force for good in the world. We need to strengthen our policies by benchmarking our experiences in Britain and Germany, but also with like-minded counterparts in Europe and the rest of the world.”

 The pre-election interview with Tony Blair in Hustings

Symbols Metaphor: “…we are trying to heal the wounds of society and bring the country further together…”

Synedoche: “The threat for this country is not a new Labour government, it is another five years of a conservative government…people appreciate that and know it very well… that is the danger to our health service, to our pensions, to our schools, to our standard of living…”

Numbers “250 000 jobs for the youth over the span of parliament period”

Causes “Under the Conservatives, welfare builds up, benefits builds up…”

Interests “It to play the Conservatives game to say that the Labour solely represents the poor , disadvantanged and unemployed …that does not represent the true divide…. The true divide is a Labur party today that represents the decent hardworking people in this country…that is why I created new Labour”

Decisions “We are the only political party offering a program for youth and the long- term unemployed….to get people off benefits and into work”

“ you can’t as a government start interfering with decisions that companies are taking….the best guarantee of people getting good work and a decent standard of living is to increase the employability of people. Their education, their skills, their ability to handle new technology”

 Panorama interview

Symbols Story of change:

“…we achieved the greatest transformation than any political party in recent decades…”

Decisions “ We have been through a long process of change and modernization…but a process well worth undertaking…I have wanted to move the Labour Party on for the position its held in the past in order to get the proper modernized party we have today.”

“We have always believed in a more just, more fair society and the Labour party believed… that the way to do that was through greater nationalization, for example the increase of state spending…the modernization was to take the Labour Party away from that, to keep true to its principles but put those principles in more modern setting…those principles weren’t wrong. I simply say apply those principles to the modern world”

 Leader's speech to Labour Party congress in Brighton 1995

Symbols Metaphor:

“The coming election is not a struggle for political power. It is a battle for the soul of a nation and I say to you, my party, be strong and of good courage.”

“Look at the wreckage of our broken society, see Britain through the eyes of our children”

Synecdoche: “My generation enjoys a thousand material advantages over any previous generation and yet we suffer a depth of insecurity and spiritual doubt they never knew. The family weakened, society divided, we see elderly people in fear of crime, children abused.”

Numbers “The Tories spend over £100 million a year on the Assisted Places Scheme. Under Labour, the scheme will be phased out. £60 million - just over half the cost of the Assisted Places Scheme - would pay for every five, six and seven year old to be educated in classes of less than 30 children. That is how they will be educated in Labour Britain”

Causes “The Tories will tell you that it cannot be done. They will lie about you, they will lie about me, they will lie about themselves, but do not let fear drive out hope.”

“by a new, confident Labour Party that, with the support of the British people, will sweep away forever the most discredited, dishonourable government in living memory”

Interests “I have spent 16 years being angry, passionate and indignant about young people huddled in doorways, families made wretched by unemployment, the poor unable to make ends meet.”

Decisions “I came into politics to change my country and I honestly believe that if we had not changed, if we had not returned our party to its essential values, free from the weight of outdated ideology, we could not change the country.”

“…we have transformed our party - our constitution rewritten, our relations with the trade unions changed and better defined for today's world, our party organisation improved,…”

The Netherlands

 Wim Kok’s Den Uyl Lecture

Symbols Metaphor:

“De verzorgingsstaat wordt in de steigers gezet. De ouderen krijgen terecht voorrang, het duurt nog jaren voordat de Algemene Bijstandswet een vloer legt in het huis dat later de verzorgingsstaat zal gaan heten.”

“Scaffolding is being put around the welfare state. The elderly are rightly given priority, and it will take years before the General Assistance Act will lay the floor in the house that will later be called the welfare state.”

Synedoche:

“Het wegvallen van vertrouwde kaders, internationaal (mondialisering) en in eigen land — of het nu politieke partijen zijn, traditionele samenlevingsvormen, de kerk, levenslange baangaranties enzovoorts — leidt tot een gevoel van onzekerheid bij brede lagen van de bevolking.”

“Internationale samenwerking — niet in de laatste plaats tussen gelijkgezinden in democratische stijl en inhoud van beleid — kan ertoe leiden dat het internationale karakter van problemen die zich binnen nationale grenzen afspelen wordt onderkend, zoals armoede, werkloosheid, veiligheid en problemen van sociale integratie in steden.”

“International cooperation - not least between like-minded people democratic style and policy content - can lead to it international nature of problems occurring within national play boundaries, such as poverty, unemployment, security and problems of social integration in cities.”

Interests “Juist de toegenomen kwetsbaarheid van de groepen die zich in het brede middenveld van de maatschappij ophouden, maakt hen vatbaar voor vele politieke opties, maar stellig ook voor die van de sociaal-democratie: verlicht, democratisch, solidair uit eigenbelang en uit ideële overwegingen.”

“It is precisely the increased vulnerability of the groups that are involved which are held up the broad midfield of society, makes them susceptible to many political options, but certainly also for those of the social democracy: enlightened, democratic, solidarity from self-interest and for ideals.”

Decisions Story of inspiration:

“In de eerste plaats is er de ambitie een brede volksbeweging te zijn, waarin mensen van verschillende achtergrond en maatschappelijke positie een betere samenleving op het oog hebben… De nieuwe Partij van de Arbeid is na de oorlog de ideologische en organisatorische uitdrukking van die ambitie”.

“In the first place there is the ambition to be a broad people's movement, in which people from different backgrounds and social position have a better society in mind ... The new Labor Party is the ideological and organizational expression of that ambition after the war.”

“De sociaal-democratie is bij uitstek — als vol kind van de Verlichting — een beweging die bestaande maatschappelijke verhoudingen heeft willen veranderen en ook daadwerkelijk heeft veranderd.”

“The Social democracy is pre-eminently - as full child of the Enlightenment - a movement that has wanted to change existing social relations and has actually changed them.”

“De sociaal-democratie kan en moet zich onderscheiden door haar overtuigde positieve waardering voor de voorzieningen van een brede verzorgingsstaat gepaard te doen gaan met een bijbehorende nadruk op soberheid en effectiviteit in de omgang met gemeenschapsmiddelen.”

 1994 pre-election debate with the leaders of the five biggest parties

I do not have a text box here because the subject of the welfare was one of five major issues discussed that night. The segment where Wim Kok spoke was brief, and I believe I captured the essence of what he said in the analysis above. From the election debate of 1994 held in the Great Hall of the Second Chamber between the biggest political parties at the time: PvdA, represented by Wim Kok, D66 represented by Hans van Mierlo, CDA represented by Elco Brinkman, Groenlinks represented by Ina Brouwer, the VVD represented by Fits Bolkestein. I only focused on the section regarding the welfare state and social security. When asked the question: if you were unemployed and you were offered higher benefits or a job what would you choose? The leader of the PvdA party replied that he would choose a job. “Ik zou niet geïsoleerd willen staan van de samenleving. Baan is contacten.” "I would not want to be isolated from society. A job means contact.” He went on to explain: “Uitkeringen moet omgezet worden naar maatschappelijk zinvol bezig zijn …banen in de zorg, surveillantes,” "Benefits should be converted into socially meaningful activities ... job caring for the elderly, guards, ...", “Wij vragen te kiezen voor werk boven hun welvaart” "We ask that people choose work above their own prosperity”. Overall his view was to support the underclass by creating 100 000 new jobs, and was against carrying out any new structural changes to the social security system. They answer, for him, lay in providing opportunities.

Question 2: How have these ideas been translated into plans for national policy?

For this I looked at the political manifestos, political debates and interviews.

The United Kingdom

 Speech by Gordon Brown officially presenting New Deal

Symbols Story of decline: “The impact of the global market in goods and services, and of rapidly advancing technology, is now being felt in every home and community in our country. New products, services and opportunities challenge us to change; old skills, jobs and industries have gone and will never return.”

Synecdoche:

“Public finances must be sustainable over the long term. If they are not, the poor, the elderly and those on fixed incomes who depend most on public services will suffer most.”

Metaphor: “a first step on the employment ladder”

Numbers “That programme of £3.5 billion...will provide money during a full Parliament. It will be the main item funded from the windfall tax on the excess profits of the privatised utilities, the details of which I shall give the House shortly.”

Causes “Some of my predecessors have ignored the signs, while others have deluded themselves into believing that growth, however unbalanced, was evidence of their success. I will not ignore the warning signs and I will not repeat past mistakes.”

Interests “Behind the numbers and statistics, the central purpose of the Budget is to ensure that Britain is equipped to rise to the challenge of the new and fast- changing global economy—not just a few of us, but every one of us.”

Decisions Inspiration story “The dynamic economies of the future will be those that unlock the talent of all their people, and our nation's creativity, adaptability and belief in hard work and self-improvement—the very qualities that made Britain lead the world in the 18th and 19th centuries—are precisely the qualities that we need to make Britain a strong economic power in the 21st century.”

“The welfare state was and remains a great British achievement. It was set up to provide security for all, and opportunity for all, goals which are as relevant today as in 1945. But for millions out of work or suffering poverty in work, the welfare state today denies rather than provides opportunity. So it is time for the welfare state to put opportunity back into people's hands.”

Problem solving “with our approach to monetary policy, so in fiscal policy: we will now establish clear rules, a new discipline, openness and accountability.”

 Political manifesto new Labour Party

Symbols Metaphor

“We aim to put behind us the bitter political struggles of left and right that have torn our country apart for too many decades”

Numbers “We will get 250,000 young unemployed off benefit and into work”

“There are over one million fewer jobs in Britain than in 1990.”

Causes “The Conservatives' broken promises taint all politics.”

Interests “New Labour's objective is to improve living standards for the many, not just the few.”

Decisions “New Labour believes in a society where we do not simply pursue our own individual aims but where we hold many aims in common and work together to achieve them.”

“We will be a radical government… New Labour is a party of ideas and ideals but not of outdated ideology. What counts is what works. The objectives are radical. The means will be modern.”

“We will get the unemployed form welfare to work”

The Netherlands

 Interview van Ad Melkert, VolksKrant

Numbers “De problemen aan de onderkant van de arbeidsmarkt, werkgelegenheid en sociale zekerheid, horen bij het publieke domein. Er worden in de WW, in de bijstand nu miljarden guldens uitgekeerd, waardoor mensen in een afhankelijkheidssituatie worden gebracht”

The problems at the bottom of the labor market, employment and social security are part of the public domain. In the unemployment benefit, billions of guilders are now being paid out in the unemployment benefit, putting people in a dependency situation

Decisions “Maar het meest wezenlijke punt, dat ik vanaf de eerste dag centraal heb gesteld, is toch werk, werk en nog eens werk”

“But the most essential point that I have centered on from the very first day is work, work and more work”

“Dat moet worden vervangen door een activerende benadering, werken met behoud van uitkering, stage-plaatsen, werkervaringsplaatsen.”

“This should be replaced by an activating approach, working with retention of benefit, internships, work experience placements.”

 PvdA election program 1994 -1998

Symbols Metaphor:

“We leven in een roerige wereld waarin prachtige verworvenheden en eerbiedwaardige instellingen ineens kwetsbaar of overleefd blijken”

“We live in a turbulent world where wonderful achievements and venerable institutions suddenly become vulnerable or redundant”

Story of decline:

“Nederland kent een hoge standaard voor consumptief welzijn en voor beschermde rechten. We zijn daaraan gewend geraakt. Onze opbrengst van geordend samenleven omvatte altijd politieke en sociale stabiliteit. En ook stijgende welvaart en verzorging van de wieg tot het graf. Tegelijkertijd beginnen we te merken dat de huidige opbrengst afneemt, schever verdeeld raakt of zelfs onhoudbaar wordt.”

“The Netherlands has a high standard for consumptive well-being and protected rights. We have become accustomed to it. Our proceeds from organized living together always included political and social stability. And also rising prosperity and care from the cradle to the grave. At the same time we begin to notice that the current revenue is decreasing, it becomes more divided or even becomes untenable.”

“Burgers dienen zich voor te bereiden op een omslag in hun levenswijze. Het leven zal in bepaalde opzichten duurder, harder en moeilijker worden. Het spreekt niet langer vanzelf dat de volgende generatie het materieel beter krijgt dan de vorige.”

“Deze verzorgingsstaat heeft aanzienlijk bijgedragen tot de levenskwaliteit in ons land en kan een vergelijking met de buurlanden nog altijd doorstaan …Dat neemt allemaal niet weg dat het draagvlak van de verzorgingsstaat thans in alle opzichten (financieel, organisatorisch, cultureel en moreel) sterk verzwakt is.”

“This welfare state has contributed significantly to the quality of life in our country and can still withstand comparison with neighboring countries…That does not take away the fact the support of the welfare state is now in all respects (financial, organizational, cultural and morally) greatly weakened.”

Interests “De werkloosheid concentreert zich in belangrijke mate bij mensen met weinig of geen opleiding. Zij zijn vooral gediend met het ontstaan van nieuwe, reguliere banen waaraan geen overdreven eisen worden gesteld, maar waarin toch maatschappelijk nuttige activiteiten worden verricht.”

“Unemployment is largely concentrated in people with little or no education. They are mainly served by the emergence of new, regular jobs that are not subject to exaggerated requirements, but in which socially useful activities are nevertheless performed”.

Decisions “De inrichting van de verzorgingsstaat kan veel sterker worden afgestemd op een aanpak van echte noden en sociale achterstelling, en op een herintrede van uitkeringsgerechtigden in het arbeidsbestel.”

“The structure of the welfare state can be tuned much more strongly to attend to the real needs and social neglect, and a re-entry of benefit recipients into the labor system.”

“Politici … moeten ondernemender worden en kansen scheppen voor blijvende verhoging van het welzijn van de bevolking.”

“Politicians … must become more enterprising and create opportunities for it lasting increase in the well-being of the population.

“Het hoofdmotief voor de sociale politiek in de komende jaren moet zijn dat elke burger zelfstandig en materieel zo vrij mogelijk is om eigen keuzen te maken in de sfeer van arbeid, vrije tijd, besparing, investering, verzekering en consumptie.”

“The main motive for social policy in the coming years must be that every citizen is independent and materially is as free as possible to make their own choices in the atmosphere labor, leisure, savings, investment, insurance and consumption.”

“een zgn. bronnenbeleid worden ingevoerd. Daarin ligt het accent niet zozeer op de uitkomst van de individuele vrijheid (zoals inkomen en economische geluksbeleving) alswel op de elementaire hulpbronnen die nodig zijn om op eigen kracht waardevol te kunnen functioneren in de markteconomie en zinvol deel te nemen aan de samenleving als geheel.”

“so-called source policies will be introduced. The accent is not so much on the outcome of individual freedom (such as income and economic happiness) as much as the elementary

resources necessary to be able to function in the market economy on one’s own strength and to participate meaningfully in the society as a whole.”

Question 3: How was the discourse around the time of adoption?

To answer this question I look at governmental debates in the two countries.

The United Kingdom

 Welfare-to-work Strategy debate with Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown (cc1053-4)

Symbols “As my Budget made clear, there are three elements of our welfare-to-work strategy and our reform of the welfare state: first, encouraging the long- term unemployed into work; secondly, providing opportunities for men and women to gain skills; and, thirdly, making work pay.”

Numbers “At present, 20 per cent. of households have no wage earner.”

Causes “We have had to introduce our proposals not because the last Government succeeded but because they failed.”

Decisions “It is precisely to deal with such problems that we are introducing the welfare-to-work strategy.”

“We have already had a number of offers from construction employers who want to be part of the welfare-to-work strategy and are offering training places on the programme.”

 Welfare-to-work Strategy debate with Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown continued (c1066)

Symbols “I believe that there has been a substantial welcome throughout the country, including the business community, for our proposals to tackle the problems of youth and long-term unemployment.”

Numbers “In Britain today, 20 per cent. of households include no one earning a wage.”

“There are more than 500,000 young people out of work.”

Causes “Something should have been done many years ago.”

Interests “ youth and long-term unemployed” Decisions “People understand that the Government made a promise at the election that they would take action on the issue. We have raised a windfall levy from the utilities to pay for the action that we are taking. We are a Government who keep our promises to the young people of Britain.”

The Netherlands

 Debate in the Eerste Kamer on the 25th of November 1997

Symbols Story of change

“Wij verkeren nu in een situatie waarin Nederland heeft leren leven met het fenomeen "gesubsidieerde arbeid". Aan het eind van de jaren tachtig en het begin van de jaren negentig zijn wij hier aarzelend, zoekend en tastend mee begonnen”

“We are now in a situation where the Netherlands has learned to live with the phenomenon of "subsidized work". At the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties we started hesitantly, searching and groping with this”

“Er is met vallen en opstaan veel praktijkervaring opgedaan.”

“A lot of practical experience has been gained through trial and error.”

Metaphor

“Het gaat om de lengte van de polsstok.”

“It is about the length of the pole.

Numbers “Het gaat om een vrij klein bedrag. Het gaat om 700 jongeren maal ƒ 4000 per jaar. Dat is 3 mln.”

“It is a fairly small amount. It involves 700 young people times NLG 4,000 per year. That is 3 mln”

Causes “Hiermee wordt ook erkend dat de markt niet een antwoord heeft op alle ontwikkelingen en dat zelfs bij een behoorlijke conjunctuur, zoals wij die in deze periode zien, de arbeidsmarkt noch langs de publieke noch langs de private weg aan iedereen een directe reguliere mogelijkheid tot het verrichten van arbeid kan bieden. Er is dus een extra inspanning nodig om

afhankelijkheid van een uitkering en zeker permanente afhankelijkheid van een uitkering zoveel mogelijk te voorkomen.”

“This also recognizes that the market does not have an answer to all developments, and that even in the case of a proper economic climate, as we see it in this period, the labor market, neither public nor private, can offer job opportunities for everyone.”

Interests “De WIW is een algemene voorzieningenwet om de reïntegratie van werkzoekenden en uitkeringsgerechtigden te bevorderen.”

“The WIW is a general provision law to promote the reintegration of job seekers and benefit claimants.”

“sommige mensen op een zodanige afstand van de arbeidsmarkt staan dat het waarschijnlijk weinig reëel is om te veronderstellen dat ze gemakkelijk op eigen kracht een plek op de reguliere arbeidsmarkt kunnen vinden”

“some people are at such a distance from the labor market that it is probably not realistic to assume that they can easily find a place on the regular labor market on their own”

Decisions “Ik wil benadrukken dat de voorbereiding van deze wet geruime tijd heeft genomen.”

“I want to emphasize that the preparation of this law has taken some time.”

“Reeds in de aanvangsfase van het kabinet zijn wij gekomen met een stroomlijningsnotitie die … WIW-aspecten behandelde”

“In the initial phase of the cabinet, we already came up with streamlining note that dealt with …. WIW aspects.

Problem solving

“Ik breng onder haar aandacht dat er meerdere bronnen zijn om de uitvoering van de WIW, ook ten aanzien van de arbeidsvoorwaarden, te financieren. Er wordt een budget beschikbaar gesteld”

“I draw attention to the fact that there are several sources to finance the implementation of the WIW, also with regard to the employment conditions. A budget is made available”

Numbers “Wij hebben zes à zeven jaar het probleem gehad dat mensen die zo lang in de banenpool zitten, altijd op het sociaal minimum blijven. Dat willen wij nu niet meer continueren en daarom hebben wij allereerst ruimte gemaakt tot 120% minimumloon.”

“We have had the problem for six to seven years that people who have been in the job pool for so long always remain at the social minimum. We do not want to continue that now and that is why we first made room for 120% minimum wage.”

Interests “Ik wil mij ervoor inspannen dat juist deze mensen, die via herindicatie op de reguliere arbeidsmarkt terechtkomen, een heel stevig traject meekrijgen, waardoor zij optimale kansen krijgen om veel beter beslagen ten ijs te komen en in het kader van bemiddeling door de arbeidsvoorziening ook een reële kans maken op reguliere arbeid.”

“I want to make an effort to ensure that these people, who end up in the regular labor market through re-identification, are given a very solid path, which gives them the best chance of getting a better position and, in the context of employment mediation, a realistic chance of regular employment.”

Decisions “in het bijzonder de werkervaringsplaats daarin een sleutelrol kan vervullen”

“the work experience place in particular can play a key role in this.”

“Als organisatoren van landelijke projecten de opvatting zijn toegedaan dat er problemen ontstaan door de WIW, ben ik voluit bereid het gesprek met hen daarover aan te gaan. Ik wil dan de functie van intermediair ten opzichte van de gemeenten vervullen. Ik zal mij ervoor inzetten dat het goede en nuttige werk dat in het kader van de experimenteerregeling met de inzet van uitkeringsgelden tot stand is gebracht, in de WIW kan worden voortgezet.”