'This highly important book studies policy debates about unemployment at the height of the Great Recession in six Western European countries on the basis of innovative survey and interview data and rigorous comparative analysis. It shows that these debates are regime-dependent, and they also strongly depend on the arenas they take place in (parliamentary or administrative/corporatist). Therefore, this masterful book is equally important for scholars in political communication and in policy analysis: the contents and dynamics of debates cannot be understood without context-specific policy knowledge; and understanding policy change requires linking ideas to agency through the study of debates.' Silja Häusermann, Universität Zürich
Part I. The Context Structures and the Policy-Specific Debates: 1. Introduction: shaping the debate on unemployment and the labor market Hanspeter Kriesi, Laurent Bernhard, Flavia Fossati and Regula Hänggli; 2. Theoretical framework: production of policy-specific political communication Regula Hänggli and Flavia Fossati; 3. The political contexts of the national policy debates Hanspeter Kriesi, Flavia Fossati, Laurent Bernhard; 4. The variety of national debates Hanspeter Kriesi, Laurent Bernhard, Flavia Fossati, Regula Hänggli and Christian Elmelund-Præstekær; Part II. The Political Actors and Their Assets: 5. What affects power in the labor market domain? Laurent Bernhard; 6. The labor market policy space Flavia Fossati; 7. Beliefs or interests: what is the driving force behind coalition formation? Laurent Bernhard; 8. The action repertoires for shaping the debates Laurent Bernhard; Part III. Communicating in Public: 9. Framing strategies: important messages in public debates Regula Hänggli; 10. The positioning of the actors in the public debates Hanspeter Kriesi and Regula Hänggli; 11. Inside the interaction context Laurent Bernhard; 12. Quality of public debates Regula Hänggli and Richard van der Wurff; Part IV. Conclusion: 13. Conclusion Laurent Bernhard.