This paper analyzes the role of policy instruments in processes of retrenchment in welfare states. Policy instruments have often been overlooked as an independent variable in retrenchment studies, since most retrenchment studies either analyze retrenchment as reforms passed by parliaments or as processes of implementation that solely takes place at the administrative level. At the theoretical level the paper presents a causal argument on how policy instruments i.e. indexation and activity based measures sustain processes of retrenchment by underpinning and sustaining a depoliticisation of an otherwise controversial process. At the empirical level the paper takes point of departure in two case studies of retrenchment in the Danish housing sector and the empirical data consists of interviews with key policymakers, document studies and descriptive statistics documenting the retrenchment outcome. The aim of the paper is to present a causal argument on how the political and bureaucratic levels are linked in retrenchment processes and hence contribute to the recent and rising debate on the role of bureaucrats within the theoretical discourse on retrenchment. The paper is based on my PhD dissertation and is intended to be converted into a journal article.
