Administrative reforms as a strategy for changing employment policies

Abstract

How can governance and implementation of the employment services best be organised? What political level and which institutions shall be politically and operationally responsible for the services? These have been some of the most important questions on the Danish political agenda regarding employment policies during the last decade. Major administrative reforms have been launched: structural reforms (changing the structures of municipalities in larger units), “jobcentre reform” (establishing decentralized job centres or one-stop-shops), municipalisation of the employment services and several other measures to control the employment services. But why have these administrative reform been launched in recent years and how does this impact on services and employment policies in general? This is the theme for this contribution, which analyses if and how administrative reforms can transform employment policies without this necessarily having been formulated as an intended political objective. The analysis suggests that, to some extent, administrative reforms can be an alternative pathway to contested policy changes in the employment policy area.