Political parties and labour market policies

The chapter discusses how political parties shape labour market policies in advanced democracies. We start by presenting two theoretical approaches. The “electoral approach” argues that parties translate their voters’ policy preferences into public policies. The “actor-centred approach”, in contrast, explains that policies reflect the programmatic positions of parties’ leadership or rank and file; these positions are adjusted to the preferences of the median voter in salient issue areas, however. Next, we discuss the advantages and pitfalls of two approaches how partisan politics can be operationalized. Either the cabinet shares of various party families can be employed or researchers can use the programmatic positions of parties. The chapter then presents empirical findings of studies investigating if and how parties shape labour market policies. We focus on three issue areas, namely unemployment benefits, active labour market policy and employment protection legislation. In the final section, we discuss where future research should head.