For a long period, Denmark has been labeled as a “model country” with a comprehensive welfare state and a successful model of corporatist policy making. Danish unions are considered amongst the strongest in the world, and they have for a long time been a distinct part of the political system and as social partners, they were strongly integrated into decision-making and implementation processes. German unions played a major role in the political arena, too. The analysis of the welfare and labor market policy during the last two decades documents a profound change in the arrangement and in the status of the social partners (especially unions) in the Danish political system. Besides, the role of the German unions changed as well during the activation reforms. Recent developments point at weak unions that operate more as lobbyists instead of being strong corporatist institutions or part of the decision-making or implementation process. The paper is organized in five major parts. Section 2 will deal with the central theoretical and historical dimensions of the topic. In section 3, I will discuss the role of unions within the labor market reforms in the 1990s and 2000s in Germany. Afterwards, in section 4, I will discuss the influence of Danish unions in labor market reforms form the 1990s to 2010. This also includes recent political developments under crisis conditions in both countries. Finally, in the concluding section I will answer the questions whether the reforms indicate backsliding from former “model countries”.
