Debating Unemployment Policy

'Written by policy experts and public communication specialists, this volume provides a very effective analysis of the debate on unemployment in Europe in the aftermath of the Great Recession. It convincingly shows that the link between policies and discourse is key to our knowledge of the politics of unemployment. A great read for anyone who wants to understand how complex political economies react when things go wrong.' Giuliano Bonoli, Universit de Lausanne

'This highly important book studies policy debates about unemployment at the height of the Great Recession in six Western European countries on the basis of innovative survey and interview data and rigorous comparative analysis. It shows that these debates are regime-dependent, and they also strongly depend on the arenas they take place in (parliamentary or administrative/corporatist). Therefore, this masterful book is equally important for scholars in political communication and in policy analysis: the contents and dynamics of debates cannot be understood without context-specific policy knowledge; and understanding policy change requires linking ideas to agency through the study of debates.' Silja Husermann, Universitt Zrich

Laurent Bernhard is a senior researcher at the Swiss Centre for Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS), which is based at Universit de Lausanne, Switzerland. Flavia Fossati is Assistant Professor for Social Policy at Universitt Wien, Austria. Her research interests include social, labour market and migration policy, labour market integration and discrimination research. Regula Hnggli is a professor specialized in political communication at the Universit de Fribourg, Switzerland. She is also a member of a federal expert group addressing the digital transformation of our society. Hanspeter Kriesi holds the Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute, Florence. In 2017, he received the Mattei-Dogan Prize. Currently he is working on an European Research Council (ERC) project on the political consequences of the Great Recession in Europe.

Part I. The Context Structures and the Policy-Specific Debates: 1. Introduction: shaping the debate on unemployment and the labor market Hanspeter Kriesi, Laurent Bernhard, Flavia Fossati and Regula Hnggli; 2. Theoretical framework: production of policy-specific political communication Regula Hnggli and Flavia Fossati; 3. The political contexts of the national policy debates Hanspeter Kriesi, Flavia Fossati, Laurent Bernhard; 4. The variety of national debates Hanspeter Kriesi, Laurent Bernhard, Flavia Fossati, Regula Hnggli and Christian Elmelund-Pr'stek'r; Part II. The Political Actors and Their Assets: 5. What affects power in the labor market domain? Laurent Bernhard; 6. The labor market policy space Flavia Fossati; 7. Beliefs or interests: what is the driving force behind coalition formation? Laurent Bernhard; 8. The action repertoires for shaping the debates Laurent Bernhard; Part III. Communicating in Public: 9. Framing strategies: important messages in public debates Regula Hnggli; 10. The positioning of the actors in the public debates Hanspeter Kriesi and Regula Hnggli; 11. Inside the interaction context Laurent Bernhard; 12. Quality of public debates Regula Hnggli and Richard van der Wurff; Part IV. Conclusion: 13. Conclusion Laurent Bernhard.