European social policy: Progressive regression

Wolfgang Streeck

No 18/11, MPIfG Discussion Paper from Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

Abstract: European social policy changed with the evolution of European and global capitalism, the scope and shape of European-level international institutions, the size and heterogeneity of "Europe" as a polity, and the politics of the European national welfare state. The paper outlines the long-term trajectory of European social policy, from the intended absorption of national welfare states into one united, federal welfare state to a selective updating of national social policies by European social policies; to multi-level coordination of national systems by special European institutions; to European soft law helping national "modernization" on the "Third Way"; to exposure of national systems to international economic competition as an incentive for "structural reform"; and to subordination of social policy, national and European, to the defense of a common hard currency through fiscal consolidation - from, in other words, federal social democracy to competitive "adjustment" of national social protection and social life to global markets.

Keywords: Europe; European integration; European social policy; Europa; europäische Integration; europäische Sozialpolitik (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:1811

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