Harmonization of social policies and social regulation in the European Community

Abstract

Abstract. The development of the European Community entails harmonization of policies in many areas. This paper analyses to what extent harmonization has taken place in the traditional fields of social policy. Interventions by the EC authorities in the social policy area, here termed direct harmonization, are examined. Indirect harmonization, resulting from common economic policies and the internationalization of the economy, is used as a key concept in an empirical study of the development of coverage, benefit levels and methods of financing in the main social insurance systems within the EC countries, since 1955. The corresponding development in the EFTA countries is here used as a baseline for comparison. The results are discussed in light of the thesis that also in the social field EC policies may fruitfully be interpreted in terms of the EC's main objective of economic integration. Some criteria for the consideration of future developments are suggested.

The creation of neo–liberal corporate bias in transnational medicines control: The Industrial shaping and interest dynamics of the European regulatory state

“…Of particular significance in the EU is the phenomenon of harmonisation and the associated re-regulation of product standards at the supranational level. As Montanari (1995) argues, harmonisation needs to be understood in terms of the EU's fundamental objective in the Treaty of Rome to create a single European market, and in relation to the internationalisation of economic interests. Hence, in scrutinising transnational pharmaceutical regulation in Europe, it is also necessary to consider whether the internationalisation of industrial interests and concomitant European integration have eroded corporatist tendencies (Lewin 1994).…”

Welfare-State Regress in Western Europe: Politics, Institutions, Globalization, and Europeanization

“…2 Preliminary data from this source have been used to analyze retrenchment in social insurance programs in the period 1975-1995(Korpi and Palme 2000. Since social rights reflect welfare state development from an angel different from the one expressed in expenditure data, these analyses provide a relevant point of comparison with results from earlier studies.…”

“…Most of the interventions of the European Commission in the social policy area have been issued not as binding directives but only as recommendations which member countries are free to follow or to disregard (Deacon 2000;Hantrais 2000;Montanari 1995Montanari , 2001). Based on the SCIP-data set, Montanari (1995Montanari ( , 2001 found little evidence for convergence of legislation on social rights within member countries in five main branches of social insurance in the period . The European Court of Justice has however had direct effects on social policy at the European level by its rulings barring some aspects of negative treatment of women on the labor market (Hobson 2000).…”

Towards a European Social Model?

“…7 It is relevant here to make a distinction between social policy in the traditional sense we attribute to this concept, namely policies consisting of transfers and services to citizens, i.e., social citizenship, and social regulation, which aims at regulating the production of goods and services. A plethora of social regulations concerning health and other conditions at the workplace were introduced especially in the 1980s, with the intention to prevent employers to compete by offering risky workplace conditions, i.e., social dumping (Majone 1993;Montanari 1995). Indirect convergence in social policy is caused by policy convergence in other policy fields.…”

“…4. This if anything tends to overestimate convergence, which has been shown to be stronger among the former EFTA countries than among earlier EC member nations (Montanari 1995). 5.…”