Literature on labour market policy reforms and, in particular, on ‘activation has tended to treat the ‘state’ or ‘public authorities’ as given actors, no matter how much their roles may change in the process. However, ‘the state’ may have several faces in countries with strong legacies of municipal self-government as well as in countries with a federal constitutional set-up. Taking Denmark and Germany as examples, this article analyses the changing roles of municipalities in the process of ‘activating’ labour market policy reforms. It does so with regard to organisational development in the process of co-locating or even merging municipal with national agencies, the role of social partners in social protection against unemployment and the public employment service, the impact of municipal social assistance in the process of hybridisation of benefit regimes, and the governance conflicts involved when shifting responsibilities for employment services.
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