Europeanization, Enlargement and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe

Alfio Cerami

No 1, Les Cahiers européens de Sciences Po from Centre d'études européennes (CEE) at Sciences Po, Paris

Abstract: This paper aims at exploring the relationship between Europeanization, Enlargement andsocial policy developments in Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, it examines theimportance of ideas, interests and institutions in the making of contemporary public andsocial policies, as well as focusing on other mechanisms that may lead to institutionalchange. Here, the goodness of fit thesis developed by Börzel and Risse (2000) is analyzed,and other elements that may lead to EU convergence are also examined. These elementsare identified in the strategic negotiations of actors, in policy learning processes, in socialpolicy diffusion of ideas and in the emergence of new forms of transnational solidarity.Contrary to common assumptions that address the role of EU institutions as being minimal inthe formation of post-communist social policy, it is argued that the European Union did play acrucial role in the process of systemic transformation by helping the introduction of newsocial policy ideas, interests and institutions.

Keywords: Europeanization; Europeanization; enlargement; East-Central Europe; East-Central Europe; social policy; welfare state (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-06-01
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cee.sciences-po.fr/erpa/docs/wp_2007_1.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

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:erp:scpoxx:p0021

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Les Cahiers européens de Sciences Po from Centre d'études européennes (CEE) at Sciences Po, Paris
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Linda AMRANI ().