Between 2000 and 2019, Portugal and Spain adopted divergent youth-oriented active labor market policies (ALMPs) to address rising youth unemployment. Drawing on data from the LABREF database, National Reform Programmes, and key economic indicators, we show that Portugal targeted higher education graduates with internship and innovation schemes aligned with its transition to a knowledge-based economy. In contrast, Spain developed a dual vocational education and training system centered on apprenticeships to support its manufacturing sector. These contrasting approaches reflect distinct national growth strategies and demonstrate how governments shape ALMPs in line with broader economic objectives. The findings offer a comparative perspective on policy divergence in Southern Europe and highlight the role of growth strategies in explaining variation in activation policies, even among countries with similar institutional and macroeconomic conditions.

Expert-produced information and data hold significant potential for adoption by decision-makers; however, this potential can be compromised by barriers related to language, communication channels, and formats. The literature emphasizes the differing languages, timelines, and incentives between specialists and lay decision-makers who seek practical solutions to real-world issues, rather than theoretical dilemmas. We conducted a mixed-method study, based on a survey and interviews with Italian regional lawmakers and local decision-makers in land-use planning. This is an area characterized by high levels of technicality and hence appears challenging to most decision-makers. We discovered that when they easily grasp the meaning and implications of policy documents, their understanding seems more influential in their legislative behavior. Consequently, a key challenge in promoting evidence-informed policy-making seems to translate expert knowledge into accessible languages and codes for laypeople and to present it in practical and concise ways.

How do citizen interest groups influence policy in domains dominated by political and economic elites? Recent research suggests their success hinges on outsider strategies to pressure policymakers, such as mobilizing public opinion. In contrast, a feminist platform named Platform for Equal and Non-transferable Birth and Adoption Leave (PPiiNA) built insider alliances with female politicians across party lines to make paternity and maternity leave equal and non-transferable in Spain in 2019. This article explores this case in depth by tracing almost 20 years of policy evolution through parliamentary documents and interviews. Against employer opposition and the absence of trade unions, the case corroborates the relevance of women in politics by illustrating how descriptive representation can open insider channels of influence to feminist advocacy groups. Nonetheless, the approval of the reform ultimately depended on left-wing governing power, while policy formulation was dominated by political elites and employer groups, limiting the capacity of cross-partisan feminist alliances to shape final policy output.

Around the start of the 21st century, countries began to experience a unique demographic transition. After generations of declining dependency and expanding labor forces, increasing longevity and persistently low fertility have reversed dependency trajectories. This paper examines the political consequences of rapid demographic aging and retirement reforms. An empirical assessment of 41 countries from 1980 to 2020 suggests that efforts to postpone retirement are politically destabilizing. In particular, increases in average retirement age and labor force participation among older cohorts may increase political instability. Demographic forecasts for rich and middle-income countries indicate a massive growing demand for age-related public services, alongside a rapid decline in the relative size of economically active populations. Policy reform is therefore urgently needed to sustain pension systems, maintain economic growth, and mitigate political instability. The paper concludes that governments must consider country-specific demographic, political, and economic conditions when designing alternatives to potentially destabilizing retirement reforms.

Recent government interventions support the objectives of collective markets through public policy rather than relying on traditional strategic cooperation between non-state actors. We ask when and how left-wing governments intervene in collectively-governed markets. We develop a novel theoretical framework at the intersection of public policy and comparative political economy. We build on public policy scholarship to mobilize a typology of policy instruments available to governments to shore up collective markets, including regulation (sticks), subsidies (carrots), and information (sermons). We embed this hierarchical classification in a political economy framework to outline under which conditions we expect policymakers to opt for different instruments. We illustrate the usefulness of this approach through a case study of least likely policy areas – labor market and training policy – nested within a least likely case – Germany.