FROM SAFETY NET TO TRAMPOLINE - LABOR-MARKET ACTIVATION IN THE NETHERLANDS AND DENMARK

In recent years Denmark and the Netherlands have made dramatic shifts from passive to active labor market policies. Though often portrayed a s a necessary response to high levels of structural unemployment, such changes are more than a mere technical adjustment of welfare programs to a changing economic climate. They represent new ideas about the go als of public policy and the social rights of citizenship. This articl e surveys the politics of labor market policies in the two countries t o demonstrate that the recent activation programs reflect a departure from the ideas and goals of the post-war welfare state.