Can Flexicurity be Exported? A Comparative Study of Italy and Spain

Abstract

This paper approaches the issue of flexicurity and its implementation in Southern Europe. The comparison between Italy and Spain shows the existence of different meanings and varieties of flexicurity. Hence we question the transposition of the Dutch / Danish flexicurity model to other European countries, and more specifically to those belonging to the Mediterranean cluster. In other words, we wonder about the viability of transposing employment models through multi-level governance mechanisms that aim at some convergence across countries. The variety of socio-economic models explains the existence of different meaning and manifestations of flexicurity even between the most-similar cases of Italy and Spain where short-term developments have pointed towards divergence in their flexicurity equilibriums, though the picture changes if we adopt a long-term perspective. The article shows how the societal effect limits the influence of the induced EU effect.