Unemployment policy has historically been a prominent domain of cooperation between governments, trade unions and employers. In contrast to cross-border labour mobility, policy changes in this domain are generally more triggered by domestic or structural developments than by supranational market integration, and lines of cleavages between political actors may be different. This chapter presents patterns of domestic policy concertation in unemployment policy in Austria and Switzerland, and shows how the trajectory of corporatist concertation has diverged between these two countries in this field. Whereas corporatist concertation in Austria has followed a cyclical pattern influenced by the political interests of the coalition in power, it has undergone a steady decline in Switzerland due to the increasing polarisation between political parties, and the weakening of centre-right parties to the advantage of the radical right. The chapter first briefly outlines the characteristics of this policy field in general, as well as broader dynamics of reform in unemployment policy in Bismarckian welfare states. Then, it analyses concertation processes over specific reforms in both countries.

The Politics of Unemployment Policy

Unemployment policy has featured high on the agenda of mature welfare states, and even more so recently since the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008.