EU Social policy: Evolution of social citizenship and integration in Europe
Professor in charge: Elizaveta Matveeva
Programme: BA in International Relations
Semester: 7
Aims of the course
Knowledge and understanding
On completion of this course students should:
- understand the logic of European welfare states transformation;
- be aware of main problems of social policy implementation at different levels (nation states and EU);
- know of regional, international and supra-national levels of social policy and be aware of the extent of the European integration impact on the social spheres of nation states;
- know the EU social policy formation characteristics;
- understand key theories and concepts of welfare state, including theories and methods of comparative analysis and their application in an international context;
- understand key concepts used to explain social welfare.
Skills and abilities
Students should be able to:
- use some of theories and concepts of welfare state development to analyze social policy problems and issues, within both national and international contexts;
- communicate ideas and arguments to others effectively, including written form;
- seek out and use statistical and other data or information from research publications, social surveys and Internet.
Content of the course
1. Introduction (Weeks 1-2)
Course’ core concepts - welfare state, social state, social citizenship, social rights, social sharing and its tiers, social solidarity; social policy, social protection, its forms, social security, social safety net.
2. Formation and development of European Welfare States (Weeks 3-5)
Welfare state emergency (from the middle of the19th century till the end of 1920s), brief history. The trentes glorieuses (1945-1975) as the golden age of industrialism and the apex of welfare state.
Typology and character of European welfare states. European welfare states change in post-industrial age. Endogenous and exogenous factors of this shift: socio-economic restructuring, demographic change, globalization and migration flows, regionalism.
3. European integration and national social citizenship (Week 6)
Social citizenship and social rights as important elements in the internal structuring of European nation states. European integration impact and the erosion of nation state “social sovereignty”. European citizenship and social rights.
4. Treaties and legal basis of the EU social policy (Weeks 7-10)
Treaties’ provisions on social policy (the Paris Treaty, the Rome Treaty, Single European Act, the Maastricht and the Amsterdam Treaties, the Nice Treaty, the Lisbon Treaty)
Elaboration of the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The European Court of Justice rulings – EU case law in the sphere of social policy.
The European Commission regulations. The 1993 and 1994 White Papers, the 1993 Green Paper.
5. Institutional dynamics (Weeks 11-13 - Case studies)
EU social policy institutions architecture: Key actors – Commission, Council, European Court of Justice, expert committees. Background actors - European Parliament, Economic and Social Committee. Corporate actors – European Centre of Public Enterprises (CEEP), European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE) and different interest groups.
The process of decision-making in the social policy sphere: Community method, Open Method of Coordination, European social dialogue.
6. EU social policy areas, main social challenges facing EU (Weeks 14-16 – students’ presentations)
Employment and unemployment, rights of workers, freedom of movement, education, health care, rights of elderly persons and disabled persons, integration of immigrants, asylum policy, problems of poverty, social exclusion, xenophobia and clandestine migration.
EU enlargement and “social dumping”, benefit tourism threats, Economic and financial crises. Austerity challenge and challenges for austerity.
7. The outlook for the EU social policy. Future of the European social model (Week 17)
Convergence and diversity, competitiveness and social progress – is it possible to find the equilibrium? Europe’s emerging multi-tiered system of social policy.
European Social Model as a reality and a theoretical construct.
Teaching methods
The course is organized as a weekly seminar with home reading and in-class discussion on issues in accordance with the content of the course or debate between two teams arranged in advance. At the weeks 14-16 discussion is preceded by students’ presentations.
Case studies method is used at the week 11-13 seminars on the institutional dynamics and the process of decision-making in the social policy sphere of the EU.
Assessment methods
Students are expected to complete following assignments:
Attendance and active participation – 35%
Presentation (individual or in group) made during weeks 14-16 on the EU social policy areas and main social challenges facing EU – 20%
Short-form report focused on the comparative analysis of treaties’ provisions on social policy (deadline – week 10) – 20%
Final test (week 18) - 25%
Core reading
Anderson K.A. Social Policy in the European Union, Palgrave, 2015
Castles, F. et al (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010
Liebfried S. & Pierson P. (eds.) European Social Policy between Fragmentation and Integration, Washington D.C., Brookings Institution, 1995
Esping-Anderson G. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, New York, Polity Press, 1990
Pierson P. The New Politics of the Welfare State, Oxford, Oxford University press, 2001
Bonoli G. European Welfare Futures: Towards a Theory of Retrenchment, Oxford, 2000
Armingeon, K. and Bonoli, G. The Politics of Post-Industrial Welfare States, London: Routledge, 2006
Flora P. & Heidenheimer A.J. (eds.) The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America, New Brunswick, Transaction, 1981
Adnett, N. & Hardy, S. The European Social Model. Modernisation or Evolution? Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2005
Cini, M. (ed.) European Union Politics, 3rd edition, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010
Wallace, H et al. (eds.) Policy-Making in the European Union, 6th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010
Hantrais, L. Social Policy in the European Union, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2007
Additional reading
Ferrera, M. Boundaries of Welfare: European Integration and the New Spatial Politics of Social Protection, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005
Büchs M. New Governance in European Social Policy: the Open Method of Coordination, Houndmills, UK, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007
Bonoli G. The Politics of Pension Reform: Institutions and Policy Change in Western Europe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000
Hay C., Watson M., Wincott D. Globalisation, European Integration and the Persistence of European Social Models // One Europe or Several Working Paper 3/99. – University of Birmingham, 1999
Falkner G. EU Social Policy in the 1990s. Towards a corporatist policy community, London, NY, 1998
Inglot, T. Welfare States in East Central Europe, 1914-2004, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008
Watson, P. EU Social and Employment Law: Policy and Practice in an Enlarged Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008
Fererra, M. ‘National welfare states and European integration: in search of a virtuous nesting’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 2009, 47(2): 219-33