ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors examine to what extent a number of Western European countries have become more 'active' or at least experienced changes in line with one or several of the meanings of 'activation' outlined above. From the late 1980s activation became - together with pension reform - one of the new key issues of reform in social protection in Western European welfare states. Obviously activation in this sense may be achieved either through an increase in absolute terms in the spending on active benefits or through a decrease in absolute terms in the spending on passive benefits. In the early 1990s the Organization for Economiec Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched a far-ranging review of member states labour market situation. The changes between 1990 and 2000 tended to be most substantial in the countries with the larger gender gaps early in the period and smallest in the countries where the differences were already fairly limited.
