The European Employment Strategy and National Welfare States: Italy and France Compared

The broad question that inspires the article is the following: why in consolidated national policy environments significant patterns of change in the field of employment have emerged over the past two decades? More specifically, how has the European Employment Strategy exercised pressures for change on national employment policies? The article is therefore focused on the evolution and interaction of EU and national employment policies. It provides some background information regarding employment and unemployment data over the years in the two countries and it illustrates the basic traits of the evolution of EU, Italian and French employment policy, showing how the two national policies have not converged over the past 15 years - notwithstanding common European pressures and domestic policy change. The final part of the article looks at the dynamics of policy change in the two countries and provides a tentative explanation for such different policy evolution, pointing out as a key explanatory factor the different national policy tradition, i.e. the welfare state model. European and National Employment Policies: Conceptual and Methodological Background.