Changing European Employment and Welfare Regimes

The Influence of the Open Method of Coordination on National Reforms

Martin Heidenreich, Jonathan Zeitlin

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780415846370
• eBook ISBN: 9781134015436
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Relaciones internacionales

This book examines how and to what extent the European Employment Strategy and the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) on Social Protection and Social Inclusion have influenced national labour market and social welfare policies.

Focusing on the implementation of the OMC in different national environments, this book examines how the proposals and targets of the OMC are interpreted and implemented within the context of existing national employment and welfare regimes. At a theoretical level and on the basis of national case studies, the book considers how OMC objectives, guidelines, targets, and recommendations may reshape the domestic institutional framework, how learning and participation of governmental bodies are organized across different hierarchical levels, and how non-state actors may be involved in the formulation and implementation of national reform plans. The authors conclude that the OMC has contributed significantly to both substantive and procedural reforms, in spite of the many institutional barriers to Europeanization in this policy area.

Featuring comparative case studies across a number of European states, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, political science, public policy, and international relations.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• List of contributors
• List of abbrevations
• Introduction
• 1 The Open Method of Coordination: a pathway to the gradual transformation of national employment and welfare regimes?
• 2 Neither convergence nor frozen paths: bounded learning, international diffusion of reforms, and the Open Method of Coordination
• 3 Unemployment protection reform in Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, and the UK: policy learning through open coordination?
• 4 The Open Method of Coordination and domestic social policy making in Belgium and France: window dressing, one-way impact, or reciprocal influence?
• 5 Joining the European Employment Strategy: Europeanization of labour market policy making in the Baltic states
• 6 Soft Europeanization? The differential influence of the European Employment Strategy in Belgium, Spain, and Sweden
• 7 North, South, East, West: the implementation of the European Employment Strategy in Denmark, the UK, Spain, and Poland
• 8 The micro-politics of the Open Method of Coordination: NGOs and the social inclusion process in Sweden
• 9 Europeanization of domestic employment and welfare regimes: the German, French, and Italian experiences
• 10 The Open Method of Coordination and reform of national social and employment policies: influences, mechanisms, effects