European welfare states and supranational governance of social policy

Abstract:

This work explores social policy within the European Union at three levels of governance; the national, the European Union and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The book is organised over six chapters. The first presents the background to the study, the methodology and the sources of evidence. Chapter two explores the area of health and safety at work by assessing the preferences of Member States in health and safety regulation based on national histories, the early history of health and safety policies in the ECSC and EEC, and the introduction of QMV in decision making for health and safety in the Single European Act. Chapter three examines the part played by collective bargaining in the creation and implementation of social policy - the Social Dialogue. Chapter four turns to governance by the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) and the European Employment Strategy (EES), considering five aspects: employment policies at the national level, the evolution of employment at the EU level in three stages (1954-1994, the 1996/97 IGC and 1997-2001) and an assessment of the impact of the EES on national policy. The fifth chapter examines governance of social policy at the global level and the role of EU Member States at the ILO, containing an overview of the institutions engaged in social policy rights and legislation at that level together with an assessment of the behaviour of EU Member States at the ILO. It then goes on to analyse the interaction between global and regional forms of governance in the social policy field. The sixth chapter presents the conclusions drawn from the study by considering three main goals the conclusion should attain. The first is to assess the creation of supranational forms of governance at the regional and global levels. The second is to assess the performance of leader, resistant and passive Member States over time and the influence of EU cooperation. The third is to assess how far supranational governance has evolved in social policy and how much further it might go in the next decade.

The book will interest scholars and students, researchers and policy makers in the fields of social policy, labour economics, international relations, European Studies, political economy and related fields.

The author is a Senior Trade Policy Analyst at the Department of International Trade, Canada, and lectures at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottowa.