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Abstract Denmark and the Netherlands are usually considered to belong to two different families of welfare states: the Scandinavian and the Continental model respectively. Yet, in both states active labour market policies, or activation, have increased during the 1990s and are currently prominent. Both in Denmark and in the Netherlands activation has been viewed as an important reason for the low unemployment rates which both states have experienced since the early to mid‐1990s, hence explaining the so‐called Dutch and Danish jobs miracles. The paper examines critically the activation measures taken in both countries and their alleged positive effect upon (un)employment. It further examines their effect on rights and obligations from a citizenship perspective. The paper concludes that in both cases the positive development of labour market performance cannot primarily be attributed to activation measures. Furthermore, activation has reduced the entitlements and increased the obligations affiliated with social citizenship.

English
This article tests whether state-organised solidarity substitutes social capital and informal solidarity, based on recent data from the European Values Study. At country level, we find that welfare spending has a reinforcing effect on social capital and a negative substitution effect on informal solidarity. At the individual level, there is also evidence for a substitution effect, since informal solidarity is lower among people who live in countries that spend more on social protection. In addition, there is evidence of a 'national burden' effect, since informal solidarity is lower among people who live in countries with an older population, with higher unemployment, and with a higher percentage of immigrants.

The concept of Flexicurity has been receiving much attention as the European social model. One of the most important concepts within the flexicurity approach is employment security, the security of having secure and continuous employment career, which may entail changing employers and jobs. How do European individuals subjectively perceive their employment security? In addition, which individual characteristics can explain for feeling employment insecurity? Are there differences found across countries, and why is this the case? In this paper, we examine the various individual as well as national level characteristics that can explain individuals' perception of their employment security. To do this we use a multi-level model, where contextual effects are taken into account and individuals are considered to be embedded in countries. The data used for analysis is the 4th wave of the European Social Survey for 22 countries for the year 2008/2009. We find that various individual level characteristics such as demographic, human and social capital, as well as attitude variables explain why an individual feels employment insecure. At the country level, it seems that labour market and economic situations are more important than institutions in explaining the cross-national variance of employment insecurity perceptions.

"The flexibilisation of work and of working life have been issues high on the agenda of the Dutch public debate for at least fifteen years. Mostly, they have been regarded as positive developments, specifically from the viewpoint of their potential for enhancing the employment of the Dutch labour force and for promoting the emancipation and economic self-sufficiency of women. Dutch governments haverecognized, however, that for taking full profit of such benefits flexibilisation has tobe regulated. Which means, not in the least, that flexible workers have to have an adequate social protection. In line with this thinking, policies have been guided by the aspiration of combining flexibility and security. Or to achieve adequate flexicurity as the combination of goals has come to be known. In this chapter the editor will present and discuss critically Dutch flexicurity policies ofrecent years, which have mainly been taken in the fields of part-time work, socialsecurity, labour law, and work-care combination. To put matters into perspective he will start with presenting figures about developmentsin the extent and distribution of flexible work and of part-time work. In main lines it will show that in the Netherlands the degree of flexible work is rathermodest, while the degree of part-time work is very high. Thirdly, he will discuss the development in Dutch government's flexicurity policies, and describe the aims and content of recent measures. Since collective labour agreements between social partnersare an important part of workers' flexicurity he should also discuss developmentsin this field separately, but space restrictions do not allow this. He will finish with a critical evaluation of the most important measures, and draw some conclusions." (text abstract)