© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ,  Garsington Road, Oxford OX DQ , UK and  Main Street, Malden, MA , USA S P & A  0144–5596 V. 37, No. 3, JUNE 2003, . 288–304 Blackwell Publishers Ltd Oxford, UK SPOL Social Policy & Administration 0144–5596 © Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2003 June 2003 37 3 1 000 Original Article The Dutch and Danish Miracles Revisited: A Critical Discussion of Activation Policies in Two Small Welfare States Wim van Oorschot and Peter Abrahamson Abstract Denmark and the Netherlands are usually considered to belong to two different families of welfare states: the Scandinavian and the Continental model respectively. Yet, in both states active labour market policies, or activation, have increased during the s and are currently prominent. Both in Denmark and in the Netherlands activation has been viewed as an important reason for the low unemployment rates which both states have experienced since the early to mid-s, hence explaining the so-called Dutch and Danish jobs miracles. The paper examines critically the activation measures taken in both countries and their alleged positive effect upon (un)employment. It further examines their effect on rights and obligations from a citizenship perspective. The paper concludes that in both cases the positive development of labour market performance cannot prim- arily be attributed to activation measures. Furthermore, activation has reduced the entitlements and increased the obligations affiliated with social citizenship. Keywords Social policy; Labour market policy; Activation; Citizenship; Welfare state Introduction During the last quarter of the twentieth century high rates of unemployment plagued most Western democracies. Many international policy institutions as well as national governments have for some time recommended, and latterly also implemented, active labour market policies or so-called activation meas- ures as a remedy for ridding countries of the unemployment problem (UN ; OECD ; EU ). Recent developments, especially within a number of smaller countries of the European Union such as Denmark, Ire- land and the Netherlands, have been viewed as success stories in so far as they have managed to reduce unemployment substantially during the s. In Address for correspondence: Dr Wim van Oorschot, Department of Sociology, Tilburg University, PO Box ,  LE Tilburg, Netherlands. E-mail: w.v.oorschot@kub.nl