Der doppelte Voluntarismus in der EU-Sozial- und Beschäftigungspolitik

In: Politische Vierteljahresschrift. Sonderheft, S. 116-135

Abstract

"This article analyses the emergence of new modes of governance in EU social and employment policy since the beginning of the 1990s. Developments in two directions are shown: As far as negative integration is concerned, supranational centralisation has gained importance. In contrast, positive integration is increasingly characterised by 'soft', co-operative modes of governance. If governments fail to reach a consensus on the transfer of competences to the European level, they increasingly resort to nonbinding instruments. In particular with regard to Social Dialogue a `twofold voluntarism' - on the level of procedures and contents - emerges. Taking both developments into account, we neither find evidence that hierarchy as a relevant mode of EU governance vanishes, nor do we detect a convergence of governance modes in different policy fields." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))