The problem of mass unemployment in western Europe has persisted since the early 1980s. "The New Politics of Unemployment" provides a thorough comparative analysis of the present situation. A number of radical unemployment policies, from Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and the EU, are outlined. These are investigated with a view to identifying the conditions under which they might become standard components of national and EU strategies to bring down unemployment. This book is the first comparative study of the politics of policy innovation in the area of unemployment. It will be an important addition to the literature of European public policy.