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Even though the shift: from 'passive' to 'active' labour market policy exhibits large cross-national variations, all examples seem to share two common characteristics: (a) the first group exposed to the new policies and the group exposed to the harshest policies was young people on social assistance; and (b) as the target group gradually came to include 'ordinary' unemployed people, most countries made exceptions for the oldest unemployed people. The article argues that this striking policy convergence has to do with the public perception of the target groups. The article substantiates this argument first, by giving a theoretical explanation for the different popular images of target groups, and second, by showing -- using a national Australian sample -- that these general popular images influence the way the public wants 'active' labour market policy to be conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]