IDHEAP

About: IDHEAP is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: New public management & Voting. The organization has 38 authors who have published 56 publications receiving 1930 citations. The organization is also known as: IDHEAP & Institut de hautes etudes en administration publique.

The Political Economy of Active Labor-Market Policy:

Abstract: Active labor-market policies (ALMPs) have developed significantly over the past two decades across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, with substantial cross-national differences in terms of both extent and overall orientation. The objective of this article is to account for cross-national variation in this policy field. It starts by reviewing existing scholarship concerning political, institutional, and ideational determinants of ALMPs. It then argues that ALMP is too broad a category to be used without further specification, and it develops a typology of four different types of ALMPs: incentive reinforcement, employment assistance, occupation, and human capital investment. These are discussed and examined through ALMP expenditure profiles in selected countries. The article uses this typology to analyze ALMP trajectories in six Western European countries and shows that the role of this instrument changes dramatically over time. It concludes that there is little regular...

When Past Reforms Open New Opportunities: Comparing Old-age Insurance Reforms in Bismarckian Welfare Systems

Abstract: France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Spain have all gone through several waves of pension reforms both in the 1990s and in the early 2000s. Comparing the politics of these reforms shows some similar trends: reforms were usually postponed until European integration and/or economic recession forced governments to act. Before the first wave of reforms, the main form of ‘action’ had been to increase payroll taxes to finance pensions. In the 1990s, reforms were usually negotiated on the basis of a quid pro quo: benefits were intended progressively to decrease in exchange for non-contributory pensions being financed from general tax revenues instead of through the insurance schemes. The second wave of reforms (during the 2000s) seems to have brought more innovation, with new goals such as the development of voluntary private pension funds and the need to increase employment rates among the elderly and to stop early retirement. The article aims, first, to trace the political processes leading to these reforms; second, to reveal the commonalities in these processes between the various cases; and third, to highlight the differences between the first and second waves of pension reform. It will emphasize the role of ‘sequencing’ and demonstrate how each pension reform facilitates the adoption of the next one.

Olympic Environmental Concerns as a Legacy of the Winter Games

Abstract: The Olympic Winter Games are partly held in mountain resorts and are thus closer to nature, a fact that has frequently led them to encounter strong opposition from environmental organizations. This paper recalls these episodes and explores how the ideas of environmental protection and sustainable development have been slowly incorporated in the Olympic rhetoric. It shows how a set of environmental principles developed through the experiences of local organizers at most Winter Games since the 1970s, and how the International Olympic Committee adopted them in the 1990s and incorporated them in the Olympic ideal. The article also explains why Olympic environmental concerns can be considered as one of the major non-material legacies that the winter games have bequeathed to the Olympic movement.

Organizational barriers to transparency: a typology and analysis of organizational behaviour tending to prevent or restrict access to information

Abstract: Transparency in the activities of government and public service agencies has become a democratic sine qua non, legislated by access to information laws in many countries. While these laws have increased the amount of information available to the public, it is evident that numerous public organizations still try to conceal information, although no public or private interest of any importance justifies such behaviour. This article will develop a typology of these forms of behaviour which will allow for a better understanding of the origins of such dynamics and pave the way for a better evaluation of the point of equilibrium between administrative privilege and transparency.

Interests and information in referendum voting: An analysis of Swiss voters

Abstract: Referendums impose considerable informational demands on voters. Recent theoretical and empirical research has emphasized the different shortcuts and heuristics they may employ in deciding how to vote. Relying on a substantial series of votes at the national level in Switzerland, we provide empirical tests on how Swiss voters cope with the informational demands in referendum voting. We combine simple heuristics, like partisan cues and endorsements, with indicators of instrumental interests to explain citizens' choices in a series of votes.