Premium
Neo‐Voluntarism: A New European Social Policy Regime?
Author(s) -
Streeck Wolfgang
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
european law journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.351
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1468-0386
pISSN - 1351-5993
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0386.1995.tb00003.x
Subject(s) - voluntarism (philosophy) , european union , situated , core (optical fiber) , political science , social policy , economic system , political economy , economics , economic policy , law , engineering , telecommunications , philosophy , epistemology , artificial intelligence , computer science
The essay begins with a recapitulation of core institutional properties of the European Union as they have evolved over several decades. The leading insight deriving from this exercise is that European social policy will always, for all practical purposes, be made simultaneously at two levels, a supranational one and a national one, and will be shaped by complex interactions between them and among the national systems situated in the integrated market economy of the Union. Proceeding from here, the remainder of the paper examines the two levels of social policy‐making, beginning with the supranational and moving on to the national, in an effort to identify the kinds of policies that are most likely to emerge given the constraints and opportunities offered by the institutional framework.