Policy paradigms and cross-national policy (mis)learning from the Danish employment miracle

Denmark and the Netherlands are often cited as models of successful active labour market policies. This 'employment miracle' has been credited to the new active labour market policy which is seen as a possible model for other European countries. One could even say that 'activation policy' is seen as a 'third way' to overcome the difficult dilemma between equality and employment and has become a dominant policy fashion, spread by such agencies as the European Commission and the OECD. However, if we take a closer look at the evaluations of the actual effects of the activation policy, there is not much evidence to substantiate this interpretation. An alternative interpretation is that job miracles are much more a result of fortunate macro-economic conditions than successful supply side policy. Nevertheless, both national and international policy-makers seem entrapped in a policy paradigm of structural unemployment that intensifies and spreads questionable activation policies. In that respect 'activation policies' are an excellent case of the intensification of European policy transfer and the path-dependent 'bounded' rationality of policy-makers.