Concept and background
Since the 1990s, Western welfare states have faced new social risks from deindustrialization, service-sector growth and globalization. Rather than shrinking evenly, institutions often kept job protection and social insurance for core workers while offering only thin protection to new part-time, temporary and agency work. Emmenegger and colleagues (2012) called this differential allocation of rights and benefits 'dualization'. It extends dual labour market theory from labour market structure into politics and policy.
Political causes
Rueda (2005, 2007) applied insider–outsider theory to politics, arguing that social democratic parties may prioritize protection for their core insider constituency and neglect outsiders. Palier and Thelen (2010) showed how reforms in France and Germany protected core export-sector workers while allowing flexibility at the margins, with these elements reinforcing each other. Building on varieties of capitalism, Thelen (2014) treated dualization as one path of liberalization, distinct from deregulation and Nordic-style embedded flexibilization.
Measurement and critiques
Schwander and Häusermann (2013) proposed defining outsiders by occupational risks of unemployment and atypical work rather than current job status. Women, young people, migrants and low-skilled service workers are overrepresented among outsiders. Critics note mixed evidence on whether dualization is temporary or structural and whether outsiders hold distinct political preferences. The framework is also used to explain wage and social insurance gaps between regular and non-regular workers in South Korea.
FAQ
- What is dualization in simple terms?
- Already-protected workers keep their protection, while newer precarious jobs get little, splitting society into two tiers.
- How does it differ from dual labour market theory?
- Dual labour market theory describes market structure; dualization also covers how politics and welfare policy create and entrench the split.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Emmenegger, P., Häusermann, S., Palier, B., & Seeleib-Kaiser, M. (Eds.). (2012). The age of dualization: The changing face of inequality in deindustrializing societies. Oxford University Press. The key edited volume defining dualization.
- Rueda, D. (2005). Insider–outsider politics in industrialized democracies: The challenge to social democratic parties. American Political Science Review, 99(1), 61–74. Why social democrats may favour insiders.
- Palier, B., & Thelen, K. (2010). Institutionalizing dualism: Complementarities and change in France and Germany. Politics & Society, 38(1), 119–148. Dualism in France and Germany.
- Thelen, K. (2014). Varieties of liberalization and the new politics of social solidarity. Cambridge University Press. Dualization as one path of liberalization.
- Schwander, H., & Häusermann, S. (2013). Who is in and who is out? A risk-based conceptualization of insiders and outsiders. Journal of European Social Policy, 23(3), 248–269. A risk-based measure of outsiders.
- Rueda, D. (2007). Social democracy inside out: Partisanship and labor market policy in industrialized democracies. Oxford University Press. Book-length treatment of insider–outsider politics.
- Esping-Andersen, G. (1999). Social foundations of postindustrial economies. Oxford University Press. Background on postindustrial welfare regimes.