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Who represents outsiders? A comparative study of The Netherlands, Ireland, and Sweden

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

Who represents labor market outsiders in the age of dualization? This article provides a government partisanship explanation for the cross-national variation in the political representation of outsiders. Specifically, this article argues that countries with a strong central party are more likely to enact pro-outsider policies such as job creation programs, generous unemployment benefits, and employment protection for outsiders. To substantiate this claim, this article chooses The Netherlands, Ireland, and Sweden as three exemplar cases in the central party strength. This article demonstrates that these countries vary in their policy responses to outsiders in the manner we expected from government partisanship-based explanation. It is also noteworthy that the empirical results based on ten welfare states from 1980 to 2007 strengthen my argument.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jong Hee Park and Hyeok Yong Kwon as well as two anonymous reviewers for constructive critical engagement with the paper that strengthens and clarifies its theoretical argument and empirical evidence. This research is funded by the Korean Political Science Association (KPSA) research grant.

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Correspondence to Jung Wook Son.

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Son, J.W. Who represents outsiders? A comparative study of The Netherlands, Ireland, and Sweden. Comp Eur Polit 20, 443–462 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-022-00275-8

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