scholarly journals The EU: Big on Big Things and Smaller on Smaller Things

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Bilge Filiz
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Model ◽  
European Social Policy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Welfare regime is composed of the social and economic policies that are adopted to protect and promote the economic and social well-being of its citizens. While neoliberal principles extend through globalization, welfare regimes have been suffering from this process since policies are developed with the emphasis on individual empowerment rather than collectively shared welfare. While spending a great deal of efforts not to lose its competitiveness, the European Union tries to create an alternative for the structure of its social policies. However, this attempt remains highly vulnerable due to the impact of capitalist economic system on development of EU social policy/model since the beginning of the EU integration process. This article analyzes the roots of underdeveloped social policy in EU history at three stages: explanation of underdevelopment of social Europe from several theoretical paradigms; examination of deep-rooted problems of European social policy within the dynamics of European integration; elaboration of EU modernization process; and clarification of this deficiency with the example of European Social Model deemed as a politically constructed project.

The European Social Policy Model: Progress since the Early 1980s

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis G. Castles
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Statistical Technique ◽  
Social Model ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Social Expenditure ◽  
Policy Model ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
Northern European ◽  
European Social Policy ◽  
The Eu

This article uses a simple statistical technique to examine whether there is a distinct European social policy model and whether such a model has consolidated during the 1980s and 1990s. In terms of total social expenditure and its major aggregates, it shows that Europe as a whole, and the countries presently constituting the EU, are somewhat more similar to each other than are the countries constituting a wider OECD grouping, but that this similarity is probably insufficient to warrant the label of European social policy model. In respect of individual programmes like pensions, health and unemployment benefits differences between Europe and the wider OECD are even less distinct. Over time, there is a general tendency for there to be greater coherence in total spending levels and in levels of expenditure on poverty alleviation and health care, but less coherence in respect of levels of social security spending. While the evidence for any kind of encompassing European social model is weak, the article does identify a Northern European grouping of countries, which, in several respects, manifests an expenditure profile quite distinct from OECD nations in general.

scholarly journals Turkey, the EU and Social Policy

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Manning
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Model ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

This paper considers what we might expect to be the effect on social policy of Turkish accession to the EU by reviewing the impact of EU membership on social policy in other new member and candidate countries. This effect begins long before membership is finalised, and continues long after membership has been achieved. The patterns of impact can be divided along a number of dimensions: between ‘accession’ and ‘enlargement’; state and civil society; centre and periphery; formal and substantive; and different welfare institutions. In the course of reviewing these variations, the paper reflects upon the nature of social policy itself, and in particular the nature of the European Social Model.

Social Policy and European Union Politics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Daly
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Policy Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
The Eu

Social policy has a particular character and set of associated politics in the European Union (EU) context. There is a double contestation involved: the extent of the EU’s agency in the field and the type of social policy model pursued. The former is contested because social policy is typically and traditionally a matter of national competence and the latter because the social policy model is crucial to economic and market development. Hence, social policy has both functional and political significance, and EU engagement risks member states’ capacity to control the social fate of their citizens and the associated resources, authority, and power that come with this capacity. The political contestations are at their core territorially and/or social class based; the former crystalizes how wide and extensive the EU authority should be in social policy and the latter a left/right continuum in regard to how redistributive and socially interventionist EU social policy should be. Both are the subject of a complicated politics at EU level. First, there is a diverse set of agents involved, not just member states and the “political” EU institutions (Parliament and Council) but the Commission is also an important “interested” actor. This renders institutional politics and jockeying for power typical features of social policymaking in the EU. Second, one has to break down the monolith of the EU institutions and recognize that within and among them are actors or units that favor a more left or right position on social policy. Third, actors’ positions do not necessarily align on the two types of contestation (apart perhaps from the social nongovernmental organizations and to a lesser extent employers and business interests). Some actors who favor an extensive role for social policy in general are skeptical about the role of the EU in this regard (e.g., trade unions, some social democratic parties) while others (some sectors of the Commission) wish for a more expansive EU remit in social policy but also support a version of social policy pinned tightly to market and economic functions. In this kind of context, the strongest and most consistent political thrust is toward a type of EU social policy that is most clearly oriented to enabling the Union’s economic and market-related objectives. Given this and the institutional set-up, the default position in EU social policy is for a market-making social policy orientation on the one hand and a circumscribed role for the EU in social policy on the other.

Introduction: European Social Policy and Society after Brexit: Neoliberalism, Populism, and Social Quality

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-91
Author(s):  
Steve Corbett ◽  
Alan Walker
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
European Society ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
European Social Policy ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

The narrow referendum decision for British exit from the European Union (Brexit), and its explosive political consequences, has become a lens through which decades-long tensions in European society can be viewed. The result, which was expected to be a clear Remain victory, has been interpreted as various combinations of: the unleashing of xenophobic and racist anti-immigrant sentiment; a kick back against disinterested elites by ‘left behind’ people; the fermenting of nationalist populism by political and media actors; a clash of cultural values; a rejection of ‘market is all’ globalisation in favour of national borders; or as a reaction against austerity, inequality and insecurity (Corbett, 2016; Goodwin and Heath, 2016; Hobolt, 2016; Inglehart and Norris, 2016; Kaufmann, 2016; Pettifor, 2016; Room, 2016; Seidler, 2018; Taylor-Gooby, 2017). This British-made shock has parallels in and consequences for wider European society. In the Referendum, the EU became an emblematic representation of the distrusted, remote, technocratic elites, who are said to be responsible for an unbelievably large number of societal ills. Meanwhile across Europe there are varieties of Eurosceptic populism and distrust of elites on both the right and left (Ivaldi et al., 2017).

The European social model – between crisis and system’s adaptability

2016 ◽  
pp. 28-53
Author(s):  
Jadwiga Nadolska
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Job Market ◽  
European Continent ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
European Social Policy ◽  
Research Goal ◽  
The Eu

The Author of the article sets as a research goal the diagnosis of the role of the ideological factor and objective structural conditions in the evolution of regulated capitalism on the European continent. In the text the European social model was characterized, the influence of globalisation on the regulated European capitalism was analyzed, the challenges of demography which are posed for the social structures, the job market and social security in Europe were discussed. The Author analysed the changes happening on the European job market since the 1980s in the field of institutional solutions, position of the employee, policy tools for the job market. The convergence and divergence dynamic in the development of the European social policy and the role of the EU institutions in managing the problems of modern Europe were analysed. Finally the influence of the Eurozone’s economic crisis on the EU social policy was diagnosed. In order to operationalise the research, historical and comparative methods will be used as well as institutional analysis and social index analysis.

Convergence toward the European Social Model? Impact of EU accession on Polish social policy

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Wiśniewski
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
Social Model ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

In order to join the European Union (EU) Poland had to meet a wide range of conditions including adoption of acquis communautaire, significant administrative reforms and economic restructuring. This article deals with all these EU-membership commitments which directly influenced the Polish social policy, spanning such areas as free movement of persons (mainly workers), labour law, social dialogue, labour market and social inclusion policies and pensions. These changes - even if incremental and evolutionary - made the Polish welfare state more compatible with the European Social Model. Judging from the experience of Poland, the European Social Model (ESM) is far from vague and meaningless ideology. The ESM has had a significant impact on national social policies which is discernible at four general levels: values and general rules, which engender a welfare state philosophy shared by all Member States; Community-enforced social minimum standards; European-level institutional co-operative procedures; and monetary transfers in the framework of cohesion policy. The impact of the EU is visible to a varying degree – ranging from substantial in the peripheral areas such as gender equality or health and safety at work to purely theoretical in fiscal and monetary matters. The Polish welfare state has been heavily influenced by practical day-to-day administrative and institutional co-operation of Poland with the UE.       Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v1i1.159

Europe's Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Close Association ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Model ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Individual Country ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Eu

The book is the Europe volume in an international series on income, wealth, consumption, well-being, and inequality. It focuses on the European Union (EU) and its member countries and other European countries that are in close association with it. The book provides an overview of economic and social trends in the countries and in country groupings. It takes the long-term process of European integration as a starting point. It addresses policy areas pertaining to certain aspects of inequality and the European social model in thematic chapters. It makes a specific point to look at the EU not as a conglomerate of individual countries but as an economic and political entity whose parts are closely interlinked politically and economically. It considers commonalities and differences in institutions and policies as they might impact the situation not just in one country but in the Union as a whole. The EU experience during the Great Recession and the Euro Crisis strongly show that developments in one country or a group of countries can harm not only well-being in an individual country but in the Union more broadly. The chapters often take a novel approach in the analysis of social trends and policies and identify major policy challenges for EU and national policymakers.

European and National Social Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 396-416
Author(s):  
Manfred G. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Expenditure ◽  
Soft Governance ◽  
European Social Policy ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The Eu

This chapter portrays the development of social policy managed by the European Union, focuses on principles of steering in the EU’s social policy, and explores the distribution of power between national social political action in the member states and European social policy since 1957. The data show that the EU has been able to gain influence through regulatory social policies and soft governance instruments. As pertaining to social services, social expenditure, and redistributive concepts, however, the EU only plays a marginal role. The predominance of national social policy and the limited role of European social policy have been largely due to socio-economic diversity of the EU’s member state, heterogeneous welfare states, institutional obstacles of policymaking in the EU, and powerful national constraints.

scholarly journals Convergence toward the European Social Model? Impact of EU accession on Polish social policy

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Wiśniewski
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
Social Model ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Social Model ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

In order to join the European Union (EU) Poland had to meet a wide range of conditions including adoption of acquis communautaire, significant administrative reforms and economic restructuring. This article deals with all these EU-membership commitments which directly influenced the Polish social policy, spanning such areas as free movement of persons (mainly workers), labour law, social dialogue, labour market and social inclusion policies and pensions. These changes - even if incremental and evolutionary - made the Polish welfare state more compatible with the European Social Model. Judging from the experience of Poland, the European Social Model (ESM) is far from vague and meaningless ideology. The ESM has had a significant impact on national social policies which is discernible at four general levels: values and general rules, which engender a welfare state philosophy shared by all Member States; Community-enforced social minimum standards; European-level institutional co-operative procedures; and monetary transfers in the framework of cohesion policy. The impact of the EU is visible to a varying degree – ranging from substantial in the peripheral areas such as gender equality or health and safety at work to purely theoretical in fiscal and monetary matters. The Polish welfare state has been heavily influenced by practical day-to-day administrative and institutional co-operation of Poland with the UE.

Russia - European Union: The continuation ofthe sanctions standoff

2017 ◽  
pp. 114-127
Author(s):  
M. Klinova ◽  
E. Sidorova
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Economic Sanctions ◽  
Current Data ◽  
The State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Year 2013

The article deals with economic sanctions and their impact on the state and prospects of the neighboring partner economies - the European Union (EU) and Russia. It provides comparisons of current data with that of the year 2013 (before sanctions) to demonstrate the impact of sanctions on both sides. Despite the fact that Russia remains the EU’s key partner, it came out of the first three partners of the EU. The current economic recession is caused by different reasons, not only by sanctions. Both the EU and Russia have internal problems, which the sanctions confrontation only exacerbates. The article emphasizes the need for a speedy restoration of cooperation.

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