Varieties of public–private policy coordination: How the political economy affects multi-actor implementation

Abstract

This study seeks to introduce the concept of Varieties of Capitalism to the study of multi-actor implementation arrangements. It illustrates the analytical value of this classification scheme by drawing from original empirical data and addresses two key research questions, namely how do public and private actors cooperate in delivering on public policy, and which factors determine the scope of their cooperation? To address these questions, the article examines governance arrangements adopted by individual European Union member states for implementing the Youth Guarantee. The Youth Guarantee was selected because all European Union member states must and have indeed already started to implement it, meaning it provides a broad empirical base for observing different types of public-private coordination. The findings demonstrate that a hierarchical structure in a country's political economy and prior expenditure on active labour market policies result in different governance arrangements.

Designing vocational training policies in an outermost European region: Highlights from a participatory process

“…These examples conform with more superficial models of policy implementation such as sharing (mutual information between stakeholders about ongoing policies and measures) or cooperation (when stakeholders work together on one or a few occasions). These models differ from the collaboration (when stakeholders work together in a sustained way, based on the appropriate institutional arrangements) (Trein and Tosun, 2021) envisioned by the integrated governance model. Thus, the translation of collaboration values into proposals for reforming the VET sector is still far from reflecting the integrated governance collaborative approach based on collective policy-design and making; namely leadership, participation, communication, and evaluation/monitoring (Marques, 2017).…”

The governance of policy integration and policy coordination through joined‐up government: How subnational levels counteract siloism and fragmentation within Swedish migration policy

“…The most frequent argument for outsourcing the provision of welfare is that the model is flexible and cost‐efficient. However, there can be challenges with regard to avoiding fragmentation in policy coordination when participating actors are subject to different regulations (Trein & Tosun, 2021) and operate within different institutional settings (Silvestre et al, 2018). A public official managing outsourced tasks made the following observation: “It becomes a great responsibility for us to keep this coordination together … That is a challenge since there are three different actors” (Christensen et al, 2014; Sørensen & Torfing, 2005) (Informant 44).…”

Implementation of the Youth Guarantee Programme in Romania

“…The YGP, the EU flagship initiative that aims to address the issue of NEETs, has achieved different results in different EU member states due to factors related to the PES capacity of implementation, but also to cooperation/partnership between actors involved in the programme's implementation (Trein and Tosun 2021). The varieties of public-private coordination of the YGP represent one of the main factors which lead to different results in the implementation of the YGP in EU members states.…”