Multilateral surveillance and the OECD: playing the idea game

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) has received much attention in the recent EU-literature. The predominant view claims that the OMC is not only a new but also an effective policy-making instrument. This paper raises doubts about both claims by offering a comparison of soft law policy coordination in three international organizations. More specifically, this paper compares the European Employment Strategy -which was the first use of the OMC -to the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines of the EU, the OECD Economic Surveys, and the IMF Article IV Consultations. Based on expert interviews, it seeks to demonstrate that these procedures are forms of multilateral surveillance that do not differ in kind. Such a comparative analysis of the OMC refutes claims to its novelty. Having compared the four procedures, a more general model of multilateral surveillance consisting of six elements is generated that facilitates further comparisons. This paper concludes that governments select voluntarist procedures mainly to secure their own competencies rather than to realize common goals. Effective problem-solving is therefore not necessarily the dominant objective of soft law. Terms of use: Documents in ZusammenfassungDie EU-Literatur der letzten Jahre hat der Offenen Methode der Koordinierung (OMC) viel Aufmerksamkeit zukommen lassen. Die vorherrschende Sichtweise behauptet, dass die OMC nicht nur ein neues, sondern auch ein effektives Instrument der Politikgestaltung sei. Dieser Aufsatz stellt beide Aussagen infrage, indem es einen Vergleich verschiedener soft law-Verfahren von drei internationalen Organisationen vorlegt. Im Einzelnen vergleicht dieses Papier die Europäische Beschäftigungsstrategie -mit der die OMC zuerst entstanden ist -mit den Grundzügen der Wirtschaftspolitik der EU, den Länderberichten der OECD sowie den Artikel-IV-Konsultationen des Internationalen Währungsfonds. Auf der Grundlage von Experteninterviews wird gezeigt, dass alle vier Verfahren multilateraler Überwachung zugeordnet werden können und kein kategorischer Unterschied zwischen ihnen besteht. Eine solche vergleichende Analyse widerlegt die angenommene Neuheit der OMC. Aufbauend auf dem Vergleich der vier Verfahren wird dann ein allgemeines Modell multilateraler Überwachung entwickelt, welches aus sechs Elementen besteht und zukünftige Studien erleichtern wird. Dieser Aufsatz schließt mit der Beobachtung, dass Regierungen voluntaristische Verfahren eher deshalb wählen, um ihre eigenen Kompeten...

show abstract

“…Such a report results from a detailed surveillance procedure (cf. Marcussen 2004). The OECD's multilateral surveillance is a two-tiered process.…”

Section: Oecd Economic Surveysmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new form of governance? comparing the open method of co-ordination to multilateral surveillance by the IMF and the OECD

Schäfer

2006

Journal of European Public Policy

142

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Networks of policy experts were formed around international organizations, most im portantly the OECD and the European Union, from the 1970s onward (Armingeon and Beyeler, 2004;Marcussen, 2004). The impact of the OECD net works in Austria often was rather indirect in the sense that in RTD policy Austria often did not take part in policy initiatives of the OECD (interviews [1][2][3][4][5][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Section: Learning From Abroad: Expert Communities and (International)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…International organizations reach into national RTD systems, such as the Austrian one, via the knowledge they offer, which is taken and processed through officials from national ministries, intermediary agencies and policy experts from research institutes and consultancies. They also have a more direct effect on actors in pro viding platforms in which experts exchange experi ences and opinions, sometimes under the tutelage of the international organization, sometimes based on their own initiative (Marcussen, 2004).…”

Section: Learning From Abroad: Expert Communities and (International)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from abroad: the Austrian competence centre programme Kplus

Biegelbauer

2007

Sci. and Pub. Pol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…In this new internationalized, competitive and permanently changing economic environment in which the education sector is required to operate, terms like total quality management, quality assurance, benchmarking, monitoring, standards and indicators, define the basic tenets of knowl edgebased economies' instrumental discourses, which have a profound impact on various levels of social life and education (OECD, 2002;MAGALHAES and STOER, 2003;MARCUSSEN, 2003;FLOURIS and PASIAS, 2008). They inform «choice» which is a means of transferring responsibility for education to its «clients / consumers».…”

Section: Introduction: Quality In the European Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current «policies of knowledge» in the European Union : mapping and critically assessing «quality» in a «measurable» Europe of knowledge

Pasias¹,

Roussakis²

2012

REEC

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper investigates the content and the different «dimensions» of «quality» in the current «policies of knowledge» of the European Union as they are specified by the renewed Lisbon Strategy and in the frame of the construction of a «measurable Europe of Knowledge». The study analyses critically the policy discourses and policy practices of the European Union from 1994 to 2010 using both primary (e.g. official documents) and secon- ). In the second section, we examine the integration of «quality» in the EU's discourses and policies (Treaties, Action Programs as well as in the general, vocational and higher education initiatives). The third section reviews the quality discourse in the context of the late EU's policy processes (Lisbon, Bologna and Copenhagen). In the final section we put forward a critical reading of the «audit/quality» nexus based on a «policy by numbers» technocratic-managerial rationale aiming at the construction of a measurable «Europe of knowledge».KEY WORDS: Quality in Education, Quality Discourse, European Education Policies, Audit/Quality Nexus, Measurable «Europe of knowledge». RESUMENEste artículo investiga el contenido y las diferentes «dimensiones» de «calidad» en las actuales «políticas de conocimiento» de la Unión Europea, del modo en que están especificadas por la renovada «Estrategia de Lisboa» y en el marco de la construcción de una «Europa del Conocimiento Medible». El estudio analiza en profundidad los discursos políticos y las prácticas políticas de la Unión Europea desde 1994 hasta 2010, utilizando a la vez fuentes primarias (por ejemplo, documentos oficiales) y secundarias (por ejemplo, artículos, estudios e investigación académicos). Consta de cuatro secciones: La primera sección se refiere a las actuales construcciones del discurso sobre la calidad en el contexto Europeo (por ejemplo, globalización, economía del conocimiento, la nueva gestión pública, nuevos gobiernos, etc.). en la segunda sección, examinamos la integración de la «calidad» en los discursos y políticas de la UE (Tratados, Programas de Acción así como las iniciativas generales, vocacionales de la educación superior). La tercera sección revisa el discurso de la «calidad» en el contexto de los actuales procesos políticos de la UE (Lisboa, Bolonia, Copenhague). En la úl-tima sección, presentamos una lectura crítica del nexo «auditoría/calidad», basado en una «política de los números», de objetivo tecnocrático-gerencial de la construcción de una «Europa del conocimiento» medible.

show abstract

Multilateral surveillance and the OECD: playing the idea game

Cited by 30 publications

References 0 publications

A new form of governance? comparing the open method of co-ordination to multilateral surveillance by the IMF and the OECD

A new form of governance? comparing the open method of co-ordination to multilateral surveillance by the IMF and the OECD

Learning from abroad: the Austrian competence centre programme Kplus

Current «policies of knowledge» in the European Union : mapping and critically assessing «quality» in a «measurable» Europe of knowledge

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About