Contemporary Social Policy in the E.U.
Professor John Wilton
Lecture 6
The ‘Europeanisation’ of social policy

Additional sources:
Tavora, I. ‘The southern European social model: familialism and the high rates of female employment
in Portugal’, in Journal of European Social Policy, Vol. 22, No. 1, February 2012, pp. 63-76.
Palier, B. (ed.) ‘A Long Goodbye to Bismarck? The Politics of Welfare Reform in Continental
Europe’, (Book Review Symposium) in Journal of European Social Policy, Vol. 22, No. 1, February
2012, pp.90- 101.

Contemporary Social Policy in the E.U.
 ‘Europeanisation’ of social policy
- E.U. ‘single social policy areas’?
- E.U. policies affect:
- policy style;
- general problem solving approach;
- policy instruments employed;
- policy standards set

Contemporary Social Policy in the E.U.
-Europeanisation of :
- pressure groups
- interest groups
- epistemic communities
-

Contemporary Social Policy in the E.U.
4 processes of ‘Europeanisation’ of policy:
a)‘bottom-up’ (national state – E.U.)
b)‘top-down’ (E.U. – national state)
c)‘horizontal’ (State – State)
d)‘round-about’ (national state – E.U. – national state)

Contemporary Social Policy in the E.U.
‘Europeanisation’ based on underlying E.U.   principles and ‘core values’:
- social progress;
- high levels of employment;
- social protection;
- raising living standards and quality of life;
- promoting social cohesion and social justice

Contemporary Social Policy in the E.U.
‘Europeanisation’
= overarching E.U. core values and principles, within which individual policies are shaped and
formulated, and diversity and ‘mutual recognition’ acknowledged, particularly in implementation