The welfare state perspective Is there a contingent convergence of activation policies

2 The welfare state perspective Is there a contingent convergence of activation policies  

From the perspective of comparative welfare state research, the crucial question is whether there is a general and converging or a context-specific pattern of actual as well as potentially feasible activation strategies. 

It is by now almost a commonplace among comparative analysts that activation, both as an idea and as a concrete set of policy rules and instruments, escapes easy classification, due to large national variations, different target groups, and the various systems of social security provision and labour market policy into which it is introduced. Nevertheless, there are different attempts to classify activation models. Most of them are anchored in well-known welfare state typologies, the most prominent one presented by Esping-Andersen (1990). 

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