Given that governments around the world have started to launch a variety of rescue packages to tackle the "Corona-Crisis," I have created this blog to provide some basic (contextual information) to those who are mainly familiar with the US context. As a political scientist, I will mainly highlight the logic of state and societal intervention in these contexts. The first entry focuses on Denmark. This article by Tribune provides a good overview of the Danish “Corona-package.” Given that the US system is somewhat unique, when compared to its European counterparts, below I provide some context to the Danish deal. The Nordic countries, especially Sweden and Denmark, are known by their generous and comprehensive safety nets. More specifically, the Danish “flexicurity” model is characterized by a flexible labor market matched by generous social benefits for workers. To be able to understand the nature of the Danish “Corona-deal” we must refer to the concept of “neo-corporatism.” Neo-corporatism is a system of industrial relations, which is grounded in high levels of coordination between three parties-- trade unions (representing “labor”), employers’ organizations (representing “capital”), and the government. These three actors engage in processes of “social concertation” to influence a variety of employment-related issues (e.g., wages, labor conditions, family policy). Tripartite employment relations is not new-- Denmark ,as well as many European countries, have been characterized by “neo-corporatism” for at least thirty years (for an overview of the literature, see e.g., Baccaro and Howell 2017). When analyzing the Great Recession of the late 2000s, some scholars noted that countries (e.g. Germany) with corporatist structures were able to bounce back quickly. Why? In the early stages, governments sat down with the social partners to implement measures in which employees were offered high levels of protection in exchange for reductions in working hours (vs. layoffs as it was the case in the USA). In the current environment, most workers will be forced to reduce their working hours and the Danish once again have agreed to provide a vast safety net. According to the article by the Tribune,
In my next entry, I will provide some context to the EU response.
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Mariely Lopez-Santana is a Political Scientist and an Associate Prof. at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. In the last two decades she has spent much time studying, teaching, and writing about employment policy. She is working on a book project on state intervention and municipal distress. Categories
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