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spanning the fields of education, health, employment and security and these also demanded
transversal implementation.
It can be observed that in none of these countries the field of youth politics provided
the starting point, but rather dominant political themes such as security, urban
development or employment which had a great interest in avoiding an increase of
expenditure during the next few years and instead were aiming at a decrease in expenditure
through preventative measures. These areas carry more weight within the context of
national politics than e.g. education and youth politics departments, provided that these
departments actually exist independently in the relevant countries.
Management process
Differing practices co-determined by their social welfare context are also evident in the
management of these programmes. The pronounced orientation towards a local, selfdetermined
programme implementation or aspects of financial control is closely related to
liberal welfare contexts. In Ireland and Great Britain for instance, management is
undertaken via a national framework programme which determines essential parameters
while still leaving substantial latitude for a flexible local programme structure. In Great
Britain, an additional element is integrated to control the dimensions of the funds to be
allocated. In both countries, a local strategic orientation is frequently lacking despite the
existence of a national strategy; the programmes are not sufficiently anchored in a
consistent local policy for the improvement of living conditions for these disadvantaged
children and young persons. For this reason, additional national parameters had to be
created in Ireland to limit deviations in local implementation.
In France, this overall control is governed by special contracts between the centralised
state and the prefectures which operate across the board on a localised level. Annually
renewable target agreements are concluded on the basis of general parameters. A
transversal orientation on a national level corresponds here to a work structure across the
board on a local authority level.
Germany with its federal system is oriented towards a cooperative management culture
(involvement of Länder [federal states]) and an interconnection between the state and civil
society. The framework is created on a national basis and the implementation of individual
programme elements on the basis of local action plans within local authorities. The
network is viewed as a management actor. Here there is a substantial influence through the
welfare state and structural context on the construction and implementation of national
programmes, above all in the involvement of civil society resources.
In Portugal, it is difficult to estimate the degree of control as several adjustments were
undertaken during the implementation of the programme, namely from top-down via
bottom-up to circular management and currently inside-out management. This
management mechanism functions through the swift relaying of information and decisions
through an intermediate switch point between the ministry and local projects. This was
among other reasons associated with the change from a more interventional to a more
interactive approach regarding content. The example of Portugal underlines the fact that
programme initiatives can also lead to the development of new management processes and
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