Patrick EmmeneggerUniversity of St.Gallen · Department of Political Science
Patrick Emmenegger
PhD
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August 2012 - present
October 2008 - July 2012
Publications
Publications (117)
Existing research argues that malapportionment primarily favors rural areas, resulting in conservative biases of electoral systems. In this paper, we provide a radically different perspective on the study of geographical overrepresentation by identifying the institutional design under which urban and left-leaning areas benefit from malapportionment...
Education has long played an important role in social policy as a means for strengthening labour market integration and increasing social mobility. The shift towards a knowledge economy has placed education policy even more centrally in efforts to provide the institutional preconditions for making economic efficiency compatible with social inclusio...
Do ethnic majorities and minorities have diverging preferences for fiscal capacity? Do these preferences converge during national emergencies such as interstate war? In this paper, we provide evidence from a natural experiment to demonstrate that politically salient minority-majority divisions undermine the development of fiscal capacity. In additi...
This book focuses on collective skill formation systems, which are characterized by a strong public commitment to and high involvement of firms in the training effort. These systems have been praised for their capacity to deliver two important socio-economic outcomes: a well-trained workforce and the successful integration of social groups at risk...
This book focuses on collective skill formation systems, which are characterized by a strong public commitment to and high involvement of firms in the training effort. These systems have been praised for their capacity to deliver two important socio-economic outcomes: a well-trained workforce and the successful integration of social groups at risk...
This book focuses on collective skill formation systems, which are characterized by a strong public commitment to and high involvement of firms in the training effort. These systems have been praised for their capacity to deliver two important socio-economic outcomes: a well-trained workforce and the successful integration of social groups at risk...
The First World War was a watershed moment for the development of the modern tax state. Yet, whereas the tax yield strongly increased in this period, little is known about how the tax mix changed, in particular regarding the turn to direct taxation. Examining the two ‘Sister Republics’ Switzerland and the USA, this paper demonstrates that tax refor...
How do coalitional dynamics matter for the capacity of states to maintain social inclusion in coordinated models of capitalism? Taking its departure in scholarship emphasizing the influence of employers on the extent of state intervention in post-industrial economies, this paper argues that employer influence depends on which actors they team up wi...
Liberalization poses significant challenges for the continued provision of collective goods within coordinated market economies (CME). Extant scholarship suggests two dominant sets of responses. Either CMEs continue to rely on employer coordination, but only for a privileged core, leading to dualization. Or, in cases where the state enjoys high cap...
This introduction to the special issue on “the politics of taxing the rich” discusses the puzzle that although inequality has sharply risen in recent decades, advanced democracies have not turned to new or higher taxes on the rich. Subsequently, it reviews the contributions to the special issue. In conclusion, the paper argues that the decline of t...
The process of adapting electoral districts under majoritarian rules (MR) matters for parties' preferences for the introduction of proportional representation (PR). Using the case of Switzerland, we demonstrate that gerrymandering , that is, the manipulation of electoral districts for partisan gain, was both substantial and effective in protecting...
Diese Blogserie bietet einen Ausschnitt aus dem „Handbook on the Politics of Taxation“, das die aktuelle Forschung zur Analyse der Steuerpolitik zusammenfasst. Die Beiträge diskutieren wichtige Handelnde, die Rolle von Ideen und Institutionen und wie diese die Steuerpolitik beeinflussen, sowie welchen Einfluss die Steuerpolitik auf wichtige gesells...
This research note examines voter preferences in Swiss-EU relations. We identify large shares of cross-pressured voters, i.e., citizens who support the bilateral treaties but wish to either control immigration into Switzerland or oppose a liberalization of social protection measures on the job market. Voters experiencing a trade-off between immigra...
There is wide agreement that war affects taxation. Yet, scholars disagree as to how exactly and under what conditions war matters. This chapter reviews the literature on war and taxation. We first discuss the causal mechanisms linking war to taxation: cost pressure, administrative capacity, and calls for redistribution. Second, we examine concerns...
This paper explores the extension of collective governance to sectors without collective governance tradition. We introduce the concept of state‐led bricolage to analyze the expansion of the Swiss apprenticeship training system – in which employer associations fulfill core collective governance tasks – to economic sectors in which training had prev...
In unserem Beitrag untersuchen wir die Rolle der Gewerkschaften in der Berufsbildung. Dabei zeigen wir, dass in Deutschland den Gewerkschaften eine starke (paritätische) Rolle zukommt. Deutlich schwächer ist die Stellung der Gewerkschaften hingegen im schweizerischen System, in welchem Arbeitgeberinteressen Vorrang gegeben wird. Unsere historisch-v...
Does war exposure increase popular support for state penetration or are changes in taxation and economic intervention primarily elite-driven? Existing research rests mainly at the macro level and is therefore unable to distinguish between the two mechanisms. In this paper, we employ a natural experiment to investigate whether direct war exposure af...
Institutionalism gives priority to structure over agency. Yet institutions have never developed and operated without the intervention of interested groups. This paper develops a conceptual framework for the role of agency in historical institutionalism. Based on recent contributions following the coalitional turn and drawing on insights from sociol...
Collective skill formation systems need to adapt to economic change, most notably the expansion of the service economy. However, deeply anchored in the craft and industrial sectors, these systems rely on neo‐corporatist institutions to undergird firms’ training provision, which are often missing in the service sector. We show that Switzerland's vol...
There is a vast literature on direct democracy and public spending. Yet, the empirical findings are surprisingly mixed. We contribute to this literature in two ways. First, we emphasize that direct democratic institutions vary, as some create proposal power, while others add a veto player. Second, we take into account that direct democratic institu...
What was the effect of the First World War on taxation? With the lower social classes providing most of the soldiers in military conflicts, some accounts emphasize how citizens demanded more progressive taxes to create some equality of sacrifice. Others observe the expansion of regressive taxation and point to popular resistance to further state ce...
Dual vocational education and training (VET) with social partner involvement in its governance can typically be found in collective skill formation systems. This article reviews the diversity of collective skill formation systems with a particular focus on their systemic governance. In particular, we look at the actors involved as well as how the s...
This paper examines how collective skill formation systems balance economic objectives related to competitiveness and social objectives related to inclusion. Based on a simple theoretical model, we argue that there are clear limits to how much inclusiveness can be achieved in collective skill formation systems. Firms are generally successful in res...
The central theme of this book is the challenges facing the European Social Model, its political institutions and the democratic elements embedded in its structures. Ever since the 1990s, discussions about the future of continental welfare states, the democratic deficit of Europeanlevel institutions or the emergence of right-wing populism as a mass...
The European Social Model is at a crossroad. Although from the 1990s onwards, the threat of an imminent crisis shaped much of the rhetoric surrounding the future of the welfare state, disagreement within the academic community remains. What is however increasingly clear is that with the global financial crisis and the Euro crisis that followed it,...
Collective skill formation systems have come under sustained pressure in recent years. Scholars observe a fragmentation process, which is the result of changing power relations, putting large training firms in a dominant position. However, so far the literature has examined neither the role of small firms and intermediary associations nor the sourc...
As the first country to introduce proportional representation (PR), Belgium has attracted considerable attention. Yet, we find the existing explanations for the 1899 breakthrough lacking. At the time of reform, the Catholic Party was politically dominant, advantaged by the electoral system, and facing reformist Socialists. Nevertheless, they single...
Historical institutionalist research has long struggled to come to terms with agency. Yet injecting agency into historical-institutionalist accounts is no easy task. If institutions are structuring agents’ actions, while they are simultaneously being structured by these very agents’ behavior, the ontological status of institutions remains unclear....
We distinguish between social and liberal collective skill formation systems and demonstrate that the German VET system is a social system with a strong (parity) role for trade unions in its governance. In contrast, unions play a considerably weaker role in the more liberal Swiss system, which privileges employers’ interests. We show that the diffe...
*Correspondence: olivier.godechot@sciencespo.fr
Brooke Harrington’s Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent is a timely book for many reasons. First, wealth is back (Piketty, 2014)—as a research topic, as a social phenomenon and as a source of public concern. Secondly, a substantial share of world’s wealth (8%) is hidden in off...
Based on the 1951 Refugee Convention, traditional conceptions of refugees typically referred to the politically active male persecuted for his obstructive acts against a communist regime. Yet, today’s asylum seekers are increasingly female with very different experiences of persecution and different reasons to flee their countries of origin. Not al...
The 19th century marked the founding period of modern public finance. We examine the domestic and non-war related determinants of direct taxation in this early democratic period and in a state building context. We argue that the reasons for the expansion of direct taxation can be found in the political competition between different elite groups in...
Why do junctures become critical in some cases but not in others? Building on the critical juncture framework and perspectives on the formation and diffusion of beliefs, we develop a theoretically parsimonious and empirically traceable account of divergence in institutional outcomes. By illuminating the role of agency and joint belief shifts we fur...
Der Kündigungsschutz ist eine wichtige Errungenschaft der Arbeiterbewegung. Gleichzeitig wird er häufig als Ursache von Arbeitsmarktrigiditäten und Segmentierung gesehen. In diesem Kapitel präsentieren und bewerten wir politikwissenschaftliche und ökonomische Sichtweisen auf den Kündigungsschutz sowie die Regulierung atypischer Beschäftigung. Neben...
Die Organisationen der Arbeitswelt sind für die Berufsbildung unverzichtbar – sie sind die Motoren der Berufsbildung in der Schweiz. Das vom Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation unterstützte Leading House "Governance in Vocational and Professional Education and Training" hat nun erstmals umfassende Daten über die OdA erhoben und...
The trade‐off between international cooperation gains and national sovereignty has become increasingly salient in recent years. This paper examines how voters assess this trade‐off in Switzerland, focusing on the choice between the economic benefits of EU integration versus sovereign immigration control. Using survey data, we identify voters for wh...
Emmenegger, P., Graf, L. & Trampusch, C. (2018) La formation professionnelle selon la perspective de l’économie politique comparée : l’exemple de la Suisse. IN Bonoli, L., Berger, J.-L. & Lamamra, N. (Eds.) Enjeux de la formation professionnelle en Suisse. Zurich, Seismo, 79-101.
https://www.seismoverlag.ch/de/daten/enjeux-de-la-formation-professi...
Collective training systems are based on the cooperation of multiple public and private stakeholders in order to work. However, such cooperation is not self-sustaining and depends, for instance, on public policies, capable intermediary organisations and shared logics of action. In this conceptual paper, we first review the political economy literat...
Analyzing the voting behavior of Swiss members of parliament (MP)
using newly collected individual, district, and cantonal level data, we
show that both electoral disproportionalities and the insurgent parties’
electoral potential are important determinants of MP voting behavior on
the adoption of proportional representation (PR). However, in contr...
Scholars increasingly use Swiss cantons to examine the effect of
democratic processes and institutions on political, economic and
social outcomes. However, the availability of political indicators at
the cantonal level is limited, in particular for longer periods of time.
We introduce a novel data set on the ideological and partisan composition
of...
The adoption of proportional representation (PR) has attracted considerable
scholarly attention in recent years. Taking Stein Rokkan’s
two roads to PR as starting point, previous research has evolved
around the question whether the adoption of PR was consensual
(minority protection) or conflict-ridden (socialist threat). In this article,
we argue t...
In 2015, Swiss voters had the opportunity to impose a tax on the super rich in a popular vote and thereby fund a redistributive policy. However, a large majority voted against its seemingly obvious self-interest and rejected the tax. We propose an explanation for this puzzling outcome, bridging the usually separate behavioralist and institutionalis...
Methodological approaches that rely exclusively on medium- to large-N cross-sectional correlations among variables as the source of causal inference are generally not suitable for analyzing comparative research questions in which the main acting agents are collective actors, such as political parties, social movements or governments. Qualitative re...
Verringert Arbeitslosigkeit politisches
Interesse? Wir argumentieren, dass die Antwort auf diese
Frage vom Stadium im Lebenszyklus abhängt. Mit zunehmendem
Alter wird politisches Interesse wandlungsresistent,
wodurch der Einfluss von Arbeitslosigkeit abnimmt.
In jungem Alter kann Arbeitslosigkeit allerdings den Sozialisationsprozess
behindern, durc...
This article explores the tactics of an emergent extraterritoriality in international finance by examining how the US was unilaterally able to pierce Swiss banking secrecy regulations before Switzerland was forced to make similar concessions at the multilateral level. Complementing power-based approaches that emphasise control over market access, w...
While fixed-term work benefits employers and increases the prospects of employability of various categories of workers, it is inherently precarious. The European Union (EU) directive on fixed-term work emphasizes the importance of equal treatment of workers on fixed-term contracts with comparable permanent workers and aims to prevent abuse of this...
It is often argued that unemployment depresses political involvement, because unemployment deprives workers of important workplace-related resources. We challenge this argument from two sides. Theoretically, we argue that the resource approach neglects life cycle stages. Socialization theory suggests that workplace-related resources influence polit...
Sanford Schram’s
The Return of Ordinary Capitalism: Neoliberalism, Precarity, Occupy
(Oxford University Press, 2015) is an ambitious effort to link together three important political realities of our time: the rise of new forms of neoliberal governance, the associated rise of new forms of social and economic insecurity, and the recent development o...
How was Swiss resistance to international cooperation in tax matters overcome? This article argues that while Swiss banks are structurally dependent on access to the United States (US) financial market, Switzerland is structurally dependent on the economic welfare of its largest banks. Taking advantage of a tax evasion scandal in the midst of the g...
This chapter argues that in order to observe immigrant-targeted welfare retrenchment, researchers need to analyse more than levels of benefits. Focusing on policy programmes that provide a disproportionate amount of benefits to immigrants, especially those who are newly arrived, on eligibility criteria and the conditions and sanctions that are impo...
After doggedly opposing any increase in exchange of information on tax matters for several decades, both Liechtenstein and Switzerland have made significant concessions over recent years. However, the two countries have reacted rather differently to international pressure: while Liechtenstein has adopted a more proactive approach, offering far-reac...
During the first half of the 20th century, some of the strongest union movements failed to provide much protection against dismissal. This contrasts with countries with comparatively weak union movements, where workers benefitted from far-reaching statutory protection. This counterintuitive outcome can be explained by the unions' interest in maximi...
How does labour market disadvantage translate into political behaviour? Bringing together the literatures on political alienation,
redistribution preferences and insider-outsider politics, we identify three mechanisms by which labour market disadvantages
influence voting behaviour. Disadvantages can increase support for redistribution, reduce inter...
In this introduction to the special issue, we review the various debates spurred by Esping-Andersen’s The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Tracing its impact since the book’s publication in 1990, we show that Three Worlds continues to be the point of reference for comparative welfare state research. A content analysis of articles in the Journal...
How much authority can sovereign states exercise over international banking in times of financial globalization? While most literature on international finance is rather pessimistic, this article argues that in case of US law enforcement, this pessimistic view is increasingly erroneous. The reason is that US authorities can take advantage of intern...
For many years women tended to vote more conservative than men, but since the 1980s this gap has shifted direction: women in many countries are more likely than men to support left parties. The literature largely agrees on a set of political-economic factors explaining the change in women's political orientation. In this article we demonstrate that...
This article analyzes business and union strategies in the reform of job security regulations. It argues that unions are the main political actors pushing for their expansion of regulations, but given employers’ opposition, unions are able to enforce better protection only in exceptional periods. Once the first restrictions are in place, employers...
In parallel to the growing weight of finance in the global economy, the transparency of financial flows and asset ownership has attracted increasing attention, a process further accelerated by the 2007/8 global financial crisis. Tax-starved governments want to know the assets their residents own but financial intransparency can make tax collection...
Despite compelling theoretical arguments, research has failed so far to provide conclusive empirical evidence on the relationship between preferences for redistribution and attitudes towards immigration. We argue that social scientists risk making erroneous inferences if the causal link connecting an independent variable to a given outcome is not c...
European labour markets are often described as rigid with comparatively high levels of job protection that do not allow for the flexible adjustment of employment to economic fluctuations. This interpretation overlooks important sources of flexibility, however. Research has shown that recent labour market policy reforms have allowed for the creation...
Poverty, increased inequality, and social exclusion are back on the political agenda in Western Europe, not only as a consequence of the Great Recession of 2008, but also because of a seemingly structural trend towards increased inequality in advanced industrial societies that has persisted since the 1970s. How can we explain this increase in inequ...
Most political science accounts assume that governments in Western democracies avoid unpopular reforms to protect their re‐election chances. Nevertheless, governments sometimes embark on electorally risky reforms – even in times when they have no slack in the polls. In this article, it is argued that pursuing unpopular reforms can be a perfectly ra...
QCA's ability of addressing complex theoretical expectations and taking account of configurational relationships is rarely fully exploited. Assessing comparative welfare-state research, which has employed QCA, we find that only about half of the studies reviewed have expressed complex theoretical propositions in set-theoretical terms, revisited cas...
The tension between immigration and redistribution has attracted increased attention in recent years. Many authors argue, based on economic self-interest theory, that there is a negative relationship between support for redistribution and preferred levels of immigration. Notwithstanding the role of economic self-interest, there is in fact a multitu...
This chapter analyses the development of dualised labour markets consisting of insiders in standard employment relationships and outsiders in non-standard employment. Existing research has explained this outcome by pointing to the representational interests of trade unions or social-democratic parties. In contrast, in this chapter we argue that uni...
This article examines the effects of migration experience on political attitudes in Central and Eastern European countries. The rationale for this quest is the hypothesis that contact with democratic contexts translates into democratic political attitudes, for which evidence is so far inconclusive. In this article, we are interested to see whether...
This conclusive chapter reviews the comparative evidence accumulated throughout the book on the new, widening and deepening divides between insiders and outsiders. It answers two key questions: who are the outsiders? And what is driving dualization? Most importantly, the comparative evidence discussed in this chapter points to the crucial importanc...
This chapter introduces the concept of dualization. Poverty, inequality, and social exclusion are back on the political agenda in many rich democracies of Western Europe and North America, not only as a consequence of the Great Recession that hit the global economy in 2008. It argues that the translation of structural pressures into policies and ou...
Western European governments face a dilemma. On the one hand, their immigrant population is growing. On the other hand, the public opposes large-scale immigration and wants to restrict immigrants' access to social benefits. We argue that in 'reluctant countries of immigration' such as France, Germany, and Great Britain, this tension is attenuated b...
For many years women tended to vote more conservative than men (the 'old' gender vote gap), but since the 1980s this gap in many countries has shifted direction: now women in many countries are more likely to support left parties than men of the same age, in the same income bracket, and at the same educational level (the 'new' gender vote gap). The...
List of Tables and Figures About the Contributors Stephan Leibfried: Preface Stephan Leibfried: A Note on the Jacket Illustration 1: Francis G. Castles, Stephan Leibfried, Jane Lewis, Herbert Obinger, and Christopher Pierson: Introduction Part I Philosophical Justifications and Critiques of the Welfare State 2: Stuart White: Ethics 3: Christopher P...
Poverty, increased inequality, and social exclusion are back on the political agenda, not only as a consequence of the Great Recession of 2008, but also because of a seemingly structural trend towards increased inequality in advanced industrial societies that has persisted since the 1970s. Policies in labor markets, social policy, and political rep...
Poverty, increased inequality, and social exclusion are back on the political agenda in Western Europe, not only as a consequence of the Great Recession that hit the global economy in 2008, but also as a consequence of a seemingly structural trend towards increased inequality that began some time ago. How can we explain this increase in inequalitie...
This conclusive chapter reviews the comparative evidence accumulated throughout the book on the new, widening and deepening divides between insiders and outsiders. It answers two key questions: who are the outsiders? And what is driving dualization? Most importantly, the comparative evidence discussed in this chapter points to the crucial importanc...
Poverty, increased inequality, and social exclusion are back on the political agenda, not only as a consequence of the Great Recession of 2008, but also because of a seemingly structural trend towards increased inequality in advanced industrial societies that has persisted since the 1970s. Policies in labor markets, social policy, and political rep...
All causal statements based on historical data — both in qualitative and quantitative social research — rely on counterfactuals. In quantitative research, scholars attempt to arrive at valid counterfactuals by emulating an experimental design. However, because of treatments that are impossible to manipulate and the non-random assignment of data to...
This article examines the role of business in the historical development of job security regulations in Germany from their
creation in the inter-war period to the dawn of the crisis of the ‘German Model’ in the 1990s. It contrasts a varieties of capitalism perspective, which views business as a protagonist, or at the very least a consenter, in the...
Projects
Projects (2)
We investigate in introduction of proportional representation in multiple countries. We focus on the evolution of electoral competition and coordination, examine voting behavior of MPs in parliaments on electoral reforms, and analyze the design of electoral systems.
The research programme of the GOVPET Leading House addresses specific forms of governance in so-called collective skill formation systems found in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. In the first research phase, the Leading House sought to understand how decentralised cooperation in skill formation works and explored ways in which private sector stakeholders can be encouraged to make a long-term commitment to cooperate. Starting in 2020, the second research phase further investigates these questions but puts on emphasis on two issues that are crucial and at the same time under-researched in relation to the governance of collective skill formation systems: technological change and immigration.
Research has not yet answered the question whether collective skill formation systems can adapt (fast enough) to the needs of the knowledge economy. If they cannot, firms may no longer turn to VET to meet their training needs. In addition, it is unclear whether technological change will complicate the reconciliation of social inclusiveness and economic efficiency. More ambitious and knowledge intensive programs may need stricter entry requirements, thereby de facto becoming inaccessible to academically less inclined students. This issue might be further compounded by the rise in immigration and the arrival of large numbers of youths with educational records that are not easily validated in rigidly organized occupational systems. At the same time, though, the immigration of individuals, in particular skilled ones, might also serve as a competition to VET systems, as firms increasingly opt to recruit from this pool of workers rather than train themselves. As a result, immigration influences strategic employer coordination, as immigrants might serve as alternative to trained domestic workers or as strategic employer coordination is used to protect to occupations against the entry of immigrant workers.
The research project is structured in three research areas. The first research area, “Reconciling strategic employer coordination and social solidarity in the face of structural pressures”, asks how skill formation systems can cope with structural pressures such as technological change and immigration without compromising either strategic employer coordination or social solidarity too much. It thus explores the tension between maintaining high levels of strategic employer coordination and high levels of social solidarity.
The second research area, “Adapting skill formation systems to the knowledge economy”, asks how skill formation systems based on strategic employer coordination can adapt to the knowledge economy. This includes questions about what kind of skills firms want in the knowledge economy and about the recruitment strategies firms use. In this context, there is an important link to immigration because (high-skilled) immigrants are an important alternative to training. At the same time, collective actors involved in training might rely on occupational protectionism to neutralize this competition.
The third research area, “The integration of immigrants into skill formation systems”, explores the numerous challenges related to the inclusion of immigrants into skill formation systems. The challenges include the coordination between different government agencies, the balance between the requirements for enhanced accessibility and the quality of the certificates, the kind of support young immigrants need to receive or the certification of skills acquired in the immigrants’ home countries.
Overall, the Leading House broadens and deepens our understanding of the strengths, weaknesses and conditions for successful decentralised cooperation. It also analyses how the overarching objective of social inclusion is considered in the governance of collectively organised VPET systems.
The Leading House on Governance in Vocational and Professional Education and Training (GOVPET) is a Centre of Excellence funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
Project website: www.govpet.ch