| 1. |
- Nordbrandt, Maria, 1983-
(författare)
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Modern Talking : On the Democratic Roles of Cross-Cutting Communication in a Polarized World
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The idea that it is desirable for citizens to engage in communication with fellow citizens who hold differing political views – so-called cross-cutting communication – is widespread in different lines of political thought. There is uncertainty, however, as to whether the colloquial cross-cutting communication found in the everyday life of citizens tends to engender important democratic virtues in practice. If it does, moreover, which are the virtues in question? Or does communication of this kind sooner activate psychological defense mechanisms that foster pa-rochialism and fortify pre-existing biases?The aim of this dissertation is to examine, both theoretically and empirically, the democratic roles played by the cross-cutting communication that takes place in the day-to-day life of ordinary citizens. The empirical part of the dissertation comprises three essays, which study the potential of cross-cutting communication to promote two specific civic virtues: public-minded thinking (Essay I) and inter-group respect (Essays II and III). By utilizing cross-sectional and panel survey data from three different countries – the US, the Netherlands, and Spain – the essays shed light on these relationships in both face-to-face and online venues for political communication.The results of the studies support the notion that cross-cutting communication, whether it occurs offline or online, may indeed help to promote certain important civic virtues. The dissertation furthermore shows that cross-cutting communication may contribute to alleviating two of the most pressing issues in modern society – the climate crisis and escalating intergroup animosity – while at the same time helping to uphold democratic values and practices.
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| 2. |
- Cronert, Axel, 1986-
(författare)
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All Interventionists Now? : On the Political Economy of Active Labor Market Policy as Micro-Interventionist Multi-Tools
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As recent decades have seen a growing interest in reforming advanced welfare states to promote employment, active labor market policy (ALMP) has emerged as a major topic of inquiry among comparative political economists. Whereas the literature to date disagrees on, and mostly downplays, the role of partisan politics in the development of ALMP, this dissertation shows that political actors systematically use ALMP programs in different ways to achieve distinct political aims. Drawing mostly on a rich, new panel data set on approximately 1,000 programs across Europe, the dissertation draws attention to several politically salient dimensions of ALMP that need to be taken seriously to understand how partisan politics matter in advanced industrial democracies.Essay I reconciles the conflicting understandings of partisanship and ALMP in the ‘power resources’ and ‘insider/outsider’ schools by highlighting that ALMP programs may serve two overarching purposes. The essay shows that left-leaning governments are particularly inclined to expand programs designed primarily to reduce unemployment, whereas governments of all suits are equally supportive of programs that also, or instead, serve to increase labor supply.Essay II focuses on employment subsidies, documenting how these may be designed to tackle different labor market challenges among different target groups. Emphasizing institutional path dependency, the essay then shows that cross-national variation in employment subsidy design broadly reflects the varying institutional regimes in different parts of Europe.Essay III reconsiders the conventional view on the importance of employer involvement and corporatist institutions for ALMP by separating programs produced unilaterally by the state from programs, such as employment subsidies, produced jointly by the state and employers to the benefit of both. The essay finds that corporatist institutions primarily matter for ALMP by paving the way for governments—especially with business-friendly center-right parties—that favor joint over unilateral production.The introductory essay argues that ALMP forms part of a larger family of economic policies that are sufficiently versatile to be sustained and used by actors across the political spectrum. Reviewing long-term trends in economic policy in OECD countries, it shows that these policies, which are here labelled micro-interventionist multi-tools, have expanded considerably since the early 1980s.
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| 3. |
- Zugic, Ognjen, 1991-
(författare)
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Labor market segmentation and the politics of investment and compensation
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation investigates patterns of policy reform that relate to labor market segmentation. It does so through two interrelated research questions. The first question aims to understand what policies are theoretically relevant for a regime-based model of labor market segmentation and how these policy regimes have empirically evolved over time in rich European democracies. The theoretical approach argues that previous studies have a narrow policy focus. Previous literature studies policy-based dualization primarily through how governments regulate the labor market status of standard and atypical workers through employment regulations. Some literature also incorporates active labor market policy (ALMP) or unemployment compensation as a way to include pro-outsider policy into models of policy-based segmentation. This thesis argues that current policy models of segmentation fall short of capturing the full scope of how government economic strategy approaches segmentation. Primarily, they do not represent governments’ efforts to either avoid segmentation by investing in a skilled insider workforce or compensating the effects of segmentation through outsider-targeted welfare tools. To integrate investment and compensation as policy dimensions alongside the literature’s focus on regulation, the dissertation incorporates tertiary education and minimum income benefits alongside employment regulations and labor market policy in a labor market policy regime. The second research question addresses the politics of these reform trajectories, asking why reforms were undertaken and what made them successful. Because the beneficiaries of higher education and minimum income benefits are politically diffuse, it develops an explanatory account of reform based on the role of political coalition-building in broader political processes that help secure reform coalitions for policies where beneficiaries are not concentrated labor market constituencies. The dissertation contrasts this theoretical account against two influential explanatory theories, one based on electoral politics and the other on economic interests. In the second and third chapters, the dissertation uses a descriptive strategy to investigate the first research question by investigating policy developments in sixteen rich European democracies combined with a deeper investigation into policy changes in Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands. It shows that a focus on regulations and labor market policy underestimates the variety of strategies governments take to intervene in the balance and outcomes of typical and atypical labor market participants. The chapters identify two empirical policy trajectories. One invests more in a skilled insider workforce but compensates outsider employment less; another invests less but uses more targeted welfare benefits to compensate for atypical employment outcomes. This variation occurs within similar trajectories of employment regulation and labor market policy.This dissertation’s fourth and fifth chapters use qualitative material to investigate influential reform processes in tertiary education and minimum income benefits in Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands. These chapters show that decisions are made in the context of labor market concerns and that where they benefitted diffuse constituencies, decisions to invest in insiders or compensate outsiders were a part of broader reform processes. The findings illustrate patterns of party and economic coalitions that deviate from predictions made by other explanatory accounts.
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