Overstretching solidarity? Trade unions' national perspectives on the European economic and social model

Marius R. Busemeyer, Christian Kellermann, Alexander Petring and Andrej Stuchlík
Additional contact information
Marius R. Busemeyer: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Paulstr. 3, 50676 Cologne, Germany
Christian Kellermann: International Policy Analysis, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Hiroshimastr. 17, 10785 Berlin, Germany
Alexander Petring: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Paulstr. 3, 50676 Cologne, Germany
Andrej Stuchlík: Freie Universität Berlin, Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, Ihnestr., 56, 14109 Berlin, Germany

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2008, vol. 14, issue 3, 435-452

Abstract: The development of a European economic and social model poses serious challenges for European trade unions. On the one hand, demand for a strengthening of the social dimension of the European integration project is growing and it is realised that this cannot be achieved by unilateral action at the national level. On the other hand, the identities and organisational capacities of trade unions are deeply embedded in national welfare state institutions, limiting the leeway for a common European social model. This article presents empirical evidence from over 100 interviews with trade union leaders and politicians from 17 EU Member States on trade unions' positions in various policy fields (economic, social and competition policies). The conclusion is that unions should reflect more critically on their embeddedness in national welfare state arrangements in order to move forward together towards the realisation of a Social Europe.

Keywords: unions'; policy positions; European economic; social model; worlds of welfare capitalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/102425890801400307 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:14:y:2008:i:3:p:435-452

DOI: 10.1177/102425890801400307

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().