Politicized Policies? The Cases of Employment Policies in Belgian and French Televised Public Debates

Abstract

Employment policies are central to contemporary social models. According to liberal democratic principles, public debate around policies must be characterized by politicization, understood as a discursive process marked by contingency and controversy. Given the far-reaching transformations in employment policies, this study examines how they are (de)politicized in Belgian and French television news through a framing analysis of coverage from three points in time: 1995–96, 2005–06, and 2019. We then test differences between countries, time points, and speaker types using multinomial analysis. The results show that discourses are predominantly depoliticized, without significant country differences, but a decrease in the share of depoliticized frames over time. Moreover, trade unions and policy beneficiaries are more likely to produce politicized discourse as compared to other types of actors. These findings raise questions about the democratic quality of policy-making for employment and challenge taken-for-granted conceptions of liberal democratic theory