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The article deals with the differential domestic employment policy adaptation to the European Employment Strategy that occurred over the past years in two European countries-Italy and France. Building on the Europeanization and welfare state change literature, the contribution operationalizes the "goodness of fit" hypothesis and develops a "policy structure" approach for the analysis of domestic employment policy change. The main argument is that domestic adaptation to the European Union depends primarily on the preferences of key institutional and social actors, and not on the specific design of domestic institutions. More in general, the article not only supports the validity of the misfit hypothesis but also shows how the nature and intensity of domestic preferences do explain differential patterns of adaptation to Europe (policy transformation in the Italian case, policy adjustment in the French case) in similar conditions of policy "misfit.". Adapted from the source document.

The aim of this paper is to provide a first sketch of an analytical framework which could be used for the comparative analysis of wel-fare state developments, under the form of emergence, consolidation, expansion and reform. We shall do so inspired by Flora and Hei-denheimer's (1981) seminal work on the development of the welfare state, and more specifically we shall depart from the 'sequencing' which is provided at the end of the book in the contribution by Hugh Heclo ("Towards a New Welfare State?") which differentiates the 'stages of welfarism' in four phases: experimentation, consolidation, expansion, reformulation based on the analysis of political and eco-nomic events (Heclo, 1981: 386-387). Furthermore, we will also use Flora's 'macro-constellation' of factors in proposing an analytical framework which will be used also for comparative purposes. The article is organised as follows: section 2 traces the main similarities and differences with respect to welfare state developments in Western Eu-rope and Latin America; section 3 critically discusses the most relevant theories of welfare state developments used for the analysis of welfare state developments in the two continents; section 4 discusses the results of our review and presents the analytical framework which should allow us to better understand – from a theoretical perspective – the evolution of welfare states in the two continents under scrutiny, and beyond.

The aim of this paper is to provide a first sketch of an analytical framework which could be used for the comparative analysis of wel-fare state developments, under the form of emergence, consolidation, expansion and reform. We shall do so inspired by Flora and Hei-denheimer's (1981) seminal work on the development of the welfare state, and more specifically we shall depart from the 'sequencing' which is provided at the end of the book in the contribution by Hugh Heclo ("Towards a New Welfare State?") which differentiates the 'stages of welfarism' in four phases: experimentation, consolidation, expansion, reformulation based on the analysis of political and eco-nomic events (Heclo, 1981: 386-387). Furthermore, we will also use Flora's 'macro-constellation' of factors in proposing an analytical framework which will be used also for comparative purposes. The article is organised as follows: section 2 traces the main similarities and differences with respect to welfare state developments in Western Eu-rope and Latin America; section 3 critically discusses the most relevant theories of welfare state developments used for the analysis of welfare state developments in the two continents; section 4 discusses the results of our review and presents the analytical framework which should allow us to better understand – from a theoretical perspective – the evolution of welfare states in the two continents under scrutiny, and beyond.

Introduction : The study of EU governing, how it operates and whom contributes to it, is essential to our understanding of the functioning of this political system. This is particularly true in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which deeply challenged existing forms of decision- making and redistribution mechanisms (Streeck and Schäfer, 2013). Possibly, the EU has never been so effective in imposing decisions on member states and societies. And in this critical context, the long-term structuring impact of the policy tools and modes of governance that had been introduced in order to define a new approach to governance were made visible. By exploring this initial assumption both theoretically and empirically, this special issue sheds new light on current debates regarding the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on EU governing. Following the 2001 White book on governance, a series of new modes of governance and policy tools have been designed and implemented across EU policy domains in order to address simultaneously the problem-solving capacity of EU institutions and the need to strengthen the participation of civil society (Heritier and Rhodes, 2011). Managerial reforms within the EU Commission and policies justified the need for softer modes of governance such as regulatory networks, benchmarking and tools through which policy and state performance could be measured and compared. By providing more participative and negotiated ways of decision-making, these softer modes of governance increased the political and administrative governability of the EU (Radaelli and Coletti, 2013), yet which actors and organizations benefited most from this new governance approach as well as its contribution to increasing the system's political accountability and democratic legitimacy remains a contested issue (Bellamy et al., 2011). The supposed superiority of new modes of governance – in terms of both inclusiveness and effectiveness – has been hotly debated in the EU literature. Following the changes brought since the ...

The abundant literature on welfare state policies, regimes or 'worlds' has been only limitedly interested in unemployment protection, and even less in youth unemployment protection. What is clearly lacking in the literature is an updated analysis of the most recent policies developed in European countries targeting youth. This mini‐symposium aims to fill in this gap by presenting findings from an EU‐funded research project entitled 'Youth, Unemployment and Exclusion in Europe: A Multidimensional Approach to Understanding the Conditions and Prospects for Social and Political Integration of Young Unemployed' (YOUNEX). The main aim of the research endeavour was to develop theory and contribute to empirical knowledge concerning the social and political exclusion of unemployed youth in Europe.

Since the beginning of the millennium, the institutions of the European Union have intensified their political efforts to combat youth employment. Youth‐specific policy initiatives were launched after the financial and economic crisis of 2008, and the overall subsequent rise of unemployment rates among young people. In this article, we analyse and assess these developments on the basis of an analysis of European policy documents and interviews. Our conclusions are twofold. One, we argue that the Europe 2020 Strategy and its flagship initiatives devoted to youth do not constitute a new policy field or approach, but are rather the outcome of an incrementalist logic of policy development. Two, the European youth strategy is clearly committed to activation, and it pushes policy developments towards a minimalist policy approach of precarious protection. Both developments are explained by the actor constellations and path dependencies of the European policy arena.

The abundant literature on welfare state policies, regimes or 'worlds' has been only limitedly interested in unemployment protection, and even less in youth unemployment protection. What is clearly lacking in the literature is an updated analysis of the most recent policies developed in European countries targeting youth. This mini-symposium aims to fill in this gap by presenting findings from an EU-funded research project entitled 'Youth, Unemployment and Exclusion in Europe: A Multidimensional Approach to Understanding the Conditions and Prospects for Social and Political Integration of Young Unemployed' (YOUNEX). The main aim of the research endeavour was to develop theory and contribute to empirical knowledge concerning the social and political exclusion of unemployed youth in Europe.

The more recent literature on the transformation of national welfare systems shows that the European Union is an important variable to take into account in order to understand domestic reforms. Our aim is to analyze in detail the political mechanisms thanks to which the EU plays a part in social policy changes of its Member States. We argue that in order to understand how the EU influences social policy reforms at the domestic level, it is necessary to look at the use made of European resources and constraints by national actors and to focus on how they turn these into political opportunities. We show that Europe contributes to change in national welfare systems, making them more employment-friendly. However, this change does not result from direct pressure on national governments but rather from the availability of various resources national actors can use in order to pursue their interest and attain their aims. By using (or not using), they participate in the incorporation of ideas and norms defined at EU level in the national debate and policy process, thus contributing to the Europeanization of domestic welfare reforms. ; La littérature récente sur les transformations des systèmes de protection sociale a montré que l'Union européenne est une variable importante à prendre en compte afin de comprendre les réformes nationales dans ce domaine. Notre objectif ici est d'analyser et de préciser les mécanismes politiques par lesquels l'UE joue un rôle dans les changements de politique sociale de ses États membres. Nous affirmons dans cet article qu'afin de comprendre comment l'UE influence les réformes nationales, il faut se pencher sur la façon dont les acteurs nationaux font usage des ressources et des contraintes européennes et sur la façon dont ils transforment ces dernières en opportunités politiques. De ces processus, il ressort que l'Europe contribue à changer les systèmes nationaux d'État-providence dans un sens qui rend ces systèmes plus « favorables à l'emploi ». Ce changement n'est cependant pas le ...

The more recent literature on the transformation of national welfare systems shows that the European Union is an important variable to take into account in order to understand domestic reforms. Our aim is to analyze in detail the political mechanisms thanks to which the EU plays a part in social policy changes of its Member States. We argue that in order to understand how the EU influences social policy reforms at the domestic level, it is necessary to look at the use made of European resources and constraints by national actors and to focus on how they turn these into political opportunities. We show that Europe contributes to change in national welfare systems, making them more employment-friendly. However, this change does not result from direct pressure on national governments but rather from the availability of various resources national actors can use in order to pursue their interest and attain their aims. By using (or not using), they participate in the incorporation of ideas and norms defined at EU level in the national debate and policy process, thus contributing to the Europeanization of domestic welfare reforms. ; La littérature récente sur les transformations des systèmes de protection sociale a montré que l'Union européenne est une variable importante à prendre en compte afin de comprendre les réformes nationales dans ce domaine. Notre objectif ici est d'analyser et de préciser les mécanismes politiques par lesquels l'UE joue un rôle dans les changements de politique sociale de ses États membres. Nous affirmons dans cet article qu'afin de comprendre comment l'UE influence les réformes nationales, il faut se pencher sur la façon dont les acteurs nationaux font usage des ressources et des contraintes européennes et sur la façon dont ils transforment ces dernières en opportunités politiques. De ces processus, il ressort que l'Europe contribue à changer les systèmes nationaux d'État-providence dans un sens qui rend ces systèmes plus « favorables à l'emploi ». Ce changement n'est cependant pas le ...