Regional Organizations and Social Policy in Europe and Latin America

A Space for Social Citizenship?

Andrea C. Bianculli, Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann, Andrea C. Bianculli, Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137490353
• Print ISBN:
  9781137490346
• Subtopic: European Politics

The contributors assess to what extent regional organizations in Europe and Latin America provide a space for the regulation and provision of social policies in the area of social protection, higher education and health. They analyse the impact of regional organizations on social citizenship following political struggle and contestation.

1

Regional Organizations and Social Policy: The Missing Link

Andrea C. Bianculli and Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann

Introduction

The capacity of European countries’ welfare systems to implement effective social policies has been challenged in the last decades by a number of factors such as changing demography, a rise in public indebtedness and the increasing mobility of peoples. Latin American countries have never achieved comparably efficient welfare systems; poverty and exclusion have been endemic problems in the region, but the increasing mobility of peoples constitutes a new challenge in the region as well. Despite the differences in their welfare systems and models of economic development and growth, European and Latin American governments share a commitment to social cohesion and to the regulation and provision of social policies to address inequalities; moreover, both regions are deeply engaged in regional cooperation and integration.

While there is an extensive literature on the creation and evolution of regional organizations, on the one hand, and the regulation and provision of social policy at the domestic level, on the other, a few studies have attempted to bridge both literatures. The present volume intends to fill this lacuna. It does so by focusing on three regional organizations from Europe and Latin America: the European Union (EU), the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).

The main objectives of this volume are to explore to what extent these three regional organizations have provided regulation and provision of social policy, and to unravel the driving forces of these changes. Moreover, the volume analyses to what extent regional organizations have provided a space for political struggle and contestation and, thus, have had an impact on social citizenship, as defined below. The book provides a set of questions, concepts and approaches to assess in a systematic way these three regional organizations in three policy areas: social protection, education and health. The studies conducted in the following chapters allow for a comparative assessment of the role of the regional level in social policy governance, the driving forces and the impact on social citizenship.

Social policies at the regional level

The ‘regional level’ has not occupied a relevant role in the social policy literature. A few scholars have taken the regional level seriously in the study of social policies, which are traditionally studied in (domestic) comparative politics (Kennett 2013; Surender and Walker 2013). The literature about the provision and regulation of public goods beyond nation-states focuses mostly on the global level and on the activities of United Nations (UN) system organizations such as the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has also been addressed in the literature. Mostly, analyses have emphasized regional organizations from the UN system such as the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE). Regional integration organizations (RIOs), with the exception of the EU, have been largely ignored in the literature about social policy. Despite the resurgence of regionalism and interregional relations since the late 1980s, comparative research on the expansion, diffusion and importance of social regulation processes that occur at the regional tier of governance is still surprisingly limited (Deacon et al. 2010; Yeates 2014).

In Latin America, the discussion about the effects of globalization and trade liberalization in the 1990s created an opportunity to discuss the relation between regional organizations and the provision and regulation of social policy. Negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) generated contestation and protests about the negative effects of (regional) trade liberalization, as illustrated by the creation of the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA) in 1997 and the demonstrations during the Third Summit of the Americas in 2001. Parallel developments at the global level include protests in Seattle during the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in 1999 and the creation of the World Social Forum in 2001. As discussed below, the ‘left turn’ in the mid-2000s with the election of Luiz Inácio da Silva in Brazil (2003), Néstor Kirchner in Argentina (2003) and Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay (2004) also brought this discussion to South American regionalism.

Across the Atlantic, the effects of the Euro crisis, which started in 2008, have launched waves of protests in the most affected countries such as Greece and Spain. Furthermore, they renovated the discussion about the role of the EU in promoting social policies and social cohesion.

In this context, the perception of the negative impact of neo-liberal globalization upon national social policy and the difficulty of securing reforms to the institutions of global social governance call for a reflection of regionalism as an important tool in managing globalization in the interests of social protection (Deacon et al. 2010). These scholars argue that regionalism facilitates the reaching of inter-state agreements as it entails more proximity, both geographically and culturally. Furthermore, regional integration initiatives have the potential to fulfil other important functions beyond trade integration, including the creation of an appropriate enabling environment for economic and social development, a reduction in social exclusion and the articulation of a more inclusive civil society, among others. Other authors, however, are more sceptical about whether regional organizations are able to fulfil this role. Schmitter (2009), for instance, calls attention to the ambivalence of the relationship between globalization, Europeanization and the European Social Model, and argues that globalization is not just a threat, but also an opportunity, and that Europeanization may not be the only (or even the most apposite) response to it. He takes his argument further and claims that if the European Social Model were to spread uniformly across the EU, its norms and practices might not provide the basis for the renewed legitimacy Europhiles are looking for.

Based on these insights, this volume explores to what extent the ‘region’ emerges as a unit to mitigate the negative effects of market instability and the challenges to domestic welfare systems (Teló 2001; Beeson 2007), but also as a development space for managing uncertainties through social regulation (Yeates and Deacon 2006; Deacon et al. 2010; Kaash and Stubbs 2014). In empirical terms, it assesses how and to what extent the EU, Mercosur and Unasur have contributed to the regulation and provision of social policies in the areas of social security, education and health, leading in turn to the consolidation of social citizenship.

The definition of social policy is not straightforward. Hall and Midgley (2004, p. xv) conceptualize social policy as the ‘measures that affect people’s well-being, whether through the provision of welfare services or by means of policies that impact upon livelihoods more generally’. From a more general approach, Mkandawire (2001, p. 11) argues that social policy ‘should be conceived of as involving overall and prior concerns with social development, and as a key instrument that works in tandem with economic policy to ensure equitable and socially sustainable development ( … ) as collective interventions directly affecting transformation in social welfare, social institutions and social relations’. These attempts to define social policy emphasize objectives, instruments and mechanisms that work at the collective level rather than at the level of the individual. Indeed, it is contended that the most important component of social policies relates to the promotion of the integration process by paying attention to social development, which in turn would lead to the construction of a ‘communitarian identity’ (Bizzozero 2000; Podestá 2000; Costa Vaz 2001; Pulgar 2001). Thus, changes in the level where social policies are addressed could lead to the transformation of identities.

More recently, Deacon and other collaborators (Deacon et al. 2007; Deacon et al. 2010; Yeates and Deacon 2010; Yeates 2014) have proposed reflecting on regional social policies across four axes: regional social redistribution mechanisms, regional social regulations, regional social rights and regional intergovernmental cooperation (see Table 1.1). In addition to the so-called 3Rs – redistribution, regulation and rights (Yeates 2014) – they include intergovernmental cooperation as a looser form of activity. First, regional social redistribution mechanisms include regional banks and funds and aid from third parties. Second, regional regulations can include the setting of standards to avoid a race to the bottom and the regulation of private social services. Third, regional treaties and legal systems, such as the EU Court of Justice and the Council of Europe’s Court of Human Rights, can raise awareness and assure access to social rights. Finally, regional intergovernmental cooperation includes a number of initiatives such as technical cooperation, capacity building, harmonization of domestic policies and regulations, and the mutual recognition of education degrees and social security entitlements, which might occur outside the formal institutions of regional organizations.

This classification into four axes is useful in identifying the branches of literature and analytical approaches that can be used to explore different aspects of regional social policy from an interdisciplinary perspective. Each of these axes has been further addressed by different branches of the disciplines of comparative politics, international relations, European studies, comparative regionalism, and law and economics. Regional intergovernmental cooperation is typically studied in the international relations and comparative regionalism literatures, while legal scholars interested in international and communitarian law mostly explore regional social rights. Regional social regulations lay at the heart of the interdisciplinary debate, given its attempt to analyse both binding and non-binding norms and standards from a single perspective. Finally, regional social redistribution mechanisms are addressed in the literature dealing with institutions and norms, but also in economics, in the analysis of the economic impact of regional banks and funds.

Table 1.1 Axes of regional social policies

Axes of regional social policies	Examples
Regional social redistribution mechanisms	Structural and cohesion funds
Regional social regulations	Norms and standards
Regional social rights	Human Rights treaties, regional legal courts
Regional intergovernmental cooperation	Exchange programs, Open Method of Coordination

Source: Adapted from Yeates and Deacon (2010).

The main objectives of this volume are to explore the changes in patterns in the regulation and provision of regional social policy and their driving forces; and to investigate to what extent the regional level has provided a space for political struggle and contestation and has had an impact on social citizenship. To this end, we develop a framework that allows for the identification of actors and mechanisms of influence that lead to institutional, norm and policy change. Furthermore, while such a framework guides the individual chapters, which deal with particular regional organizations and policy areas, it also allows for the comparative assessment of the individual cases, which is summarized and discussed in the concluding chapter.

Drivers and mechanisms of institutional, norm and policy change

Explaining the transformation of regional integration processes is certainly a difficult task (Caporaso 1998). While there are many theories that attempt to account for institutional, policy and norm change, rather than looking for a grand unique theoretical approach, in this chapter we focus on the identification of the drivers and mechanisms that are relevant when analysing and assessing how regional organizations address social policy and if, and how, this has changed over time. In turn, this will allow for a meaningful comparative analysis.

In an attempt to guide the empirical analysis of social policies at the regional tier of governance, we thus propose an initial mapping of the drivers and mechanisms underlying regional processes of institutional, policy and norm change. As depicted in Table 1.2, the analysis looks into the various drivers underlying such transformation processes and these can be grouped into actors and mechanisms.

Regarding the drivers of regional institutional, norm and policy change, we consider a wide variety of actors, which range from international organizations, ‘peer’ regional organizations, institutions and bodies within regional organizations, governments of member-states, labour and business representatives, and civil society organizations (CSOs) including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social movements. In terms of the specific mechanism at play, we distinguish among legislative power, pressure and contestation, and (direct and indirect) mechanisms of diffusion.

The literature has explored the role of international organizations in regional social policy, i.e. regional social policy from above (Deacon and Macovei 2010). Similarly, though assuming a bottom-up perspective, studies have delved into the role of social movements and CSOs, i.e. regional social policy from below (Bizzozero 2000; Vaz 2001; Berrón 2007; Brennan and Olivet 2007; Olivet and Brennan 2010).

In addition to the global and domestic actors that can have an impact on institutional and norm change in RIOs, one additional factor refers to the horizontal, interregional level. The concept of interregionalism, as defined by Hänggi (2006, p. 39), one of the first scholars to use this term, includes three categories. Whereas the first category refers to institutionalized relations between regional groupings (e.g. EU–Mercosur), the second category relates to relations between regional groupings and third states (e.g. EU–China). Finally, the third category is referred to as ‘other interregional or transregional mechanisms’. This includes relations between a regional organization and a more or less coordinated group of states in different regions (e.g. the Asia–Europe Meeting/ASEM), relations between two more or less coordinated groups of states in different regions (e.g. the Forum for East Asia–Latin America Cooperation/FEALAC) and relations among states, groups of states and regional organizations from different regions (e.g. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation/APEC).

Table 1.2 Drivers of institutional, norm and policy change at the regional level

Source: The authors’ own.

In this volume, we focus on the formal and informal relations between the EU, Mercosur and Unasur, and their role in the process of (social) norm diffusion. The EU occupies...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Notes on Contributors
• List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
• 1. Regional Organizations and Social Policy: The Missing Link
• Part I: Contextualizing Social Policy in Regional Governance: Trade and Investment Agreements, Structural Funds and Development Banks
• Part II: Regional Norms and Policies in the Area of Social Protection
• Part III: Regional Norms and Policies in the Area of Education
• Part IV: Regional Norms and Policies in the Area of Health
• Index