"The rich democracies vary widely in the amount of public resources they devote to assisting the unemployed. This article puts forward a theory of cross-national policy differences, using indicators of unemployment benefit generosity and active labor market policy spending for the period from 1985 to 2005. Contesting recent research that downplays the impact of unions on policy outcomes, the author argues that variations in unionism are the central explanatory factor behind these differences in unemployment protection. Specifically, three aspects of different union movements are highlighted: union density, union centralization, and relative involvement in unemployment benefit administration. The article presents an index of ‘inclusive unionism' that can explain the bulk of variation in unemployment protection generosity. This work builds on earlier power resource theory and challenges the explanations of labor market policy advanced by varieties of capitalism and insider-outsider theory."

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