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AbstractThis article explores the religious roots of job security regulations in Western democracies by putting Esping‐Andersen's famous social Catholicism thesis to the test. Esping‐Andersen argues that due to religious socialization, Catholics exhibit more conservative family values, i.e. they tend to support the male breadwinner model. To sustain this model of family organization, Catholics are expected to support job security regulations. These regulations have been described in the literature as important determinants of gender‐segregated labour markets and low female employment rates. Data from this article show that while Catholics indeed support more conservative family models, so do Reformed Protestants and religious persons in general. Furthermore, no relationship between religious denomination and preferences for job security regulations can be observed. The analysis thus refutes Esping‐Andersen's social Catholicism thesis.

Despite the prominent role of job security regulations in the "varieties of capitalism" literature and although Swiss law gives only limited protection to workers against dismissal, Switzerland is normally classified as a coordinated market economy. This apparent contradiction is often explained by emphasizing the trade-off between extensive job security regulations and generous unemployment insurance benefits. This explanation, however, is not convincing for the Swiss case, as the coverage of the unemployment insurance system was very low until the late 1970s. This article argues that low levels of job security regulations are the result of the weakness of the federal state, which attempted several times to enact restrictive job security regulations. Each attempt to enact job security regulations, however, has been blocked by an alliance of liberal-conservative political groupings and employers' associations. The present article traces the historical development of job security regulations in Switzerland and reveals the political coalitions that successfully kept the federal state weak.

Job security regulations, here understood as restrictions on hiring and firing, figure prominently in the policy recommendations of international organizations or national reform programmes. However, in contrast to the prominence of job security regulations in the current reform discourse, hardly any attention is paid to their determinants. In this article, the insider/outsider theory of employment and unemployment is examined. Advocates of this approach argue that job security regulations mainly benefit the labour market insiders. As a consequence, insiders will fight all reforms that aim to dismantle these regulations. The insiders are supported by Social Democratic parties, which only represent the interests of the insiders. In this article it is maintained that this simple argument is wrong. Labour market outsiders can be expected to be equally supportive of job security regulations and Social Democratic parties as labour market insiders. This claim is supported by the empirical analysis using survey data.

This article focuses on the relationship between religion and employment protection legislation in Western democracies. In his well-known theory, Esping-Andersen claims that catholic social teaching is the most important determinant of the level employment protection legislation. In contrast to Esping-Andersen, we argue that his argument is not a sufficient explanation and has to be extended by introducing political actors (Christian and Social democracy), religiosity (demand and supply side) and a distinction between lutheran and reformed Protestantism. The empirical part shows that religious factors can explain a part of the observed variation, but the discussed extensions prove to be crucial. Next to religious factors, the coordination between firms in an economy plays an important role. However, the model fails to explain the variation among Europe's small and open economies. In these countries, alternative schemes for the protection of employees exist. In the case of Switzerland, for example, these schemes even lead to a similarly gender-segregated labour market. Adapted from the source document.

This article focuses on the relationship between religion and employment protection legislation in Western democracies. While Esping‐Andersen claimed that catholic social teaching is the most important determinant of the level employment protection legislation, we argue that his argument must be extended by introducing political actors, religiosity and a distinction between lutheran and reformed Protestantism. The empirical part shows that religious factors can explain part of the observed variation, but the discussed extensions prove to be crucial.