Responsibility Attribution in the Eu's Multilevel System: The Issue of Youth Unemployment

Youth unemployment has been a problem in many member states of the European Union (EU) for a few decades now. Youth unemployment – like unemployment in general – has many undesirable economic, social, and political consequences for societies and individuals alike. It is associated with a multitude of economic challenges, a general lack of social support, and often leaves young more vulnerable to physical and mental health problems. Overcoming youth unemployment it not an easy task as it requires changes in the demand- and the supply-side of labour. Here, we are interested in the perspective of young people (aged 18-35) in eleven EU member states. Which actors at which level of government do young Europeans assign responsibility for addressing the issue of youth unemployment? To address this question we use an original dataset and find that there is remarkable variation across the countries under study with regard to which actors are found responsible. In some countries, political actors at different levels of government are assigned the responsibility, while in others education institutions and economic actors are perceived to be the most influential actors. Both individual- and country-level variables explain the variation observed and help to better understand how responsibility attribution happens in the EU’s multilevel system.