1 / 9

Coalitions and the decision making process on the common flexicurity principles

Coalitions and the decision making process on the common flexicurity principles . Mikkel Mailand Employment Relations Research Centre (FAOS) Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen Paper for ASPEN conference 20-21 March, 2009. Lineout .

angelo
Download Presentation

Coalitions and the decision making process on the common flexicurity principles

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Coalitions and the decision making process on the common flexicurity principles Mikkel Mailand Employment Relations Research Centre (FAOS) Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen Paper for ASPEN conference 20-21 March, 2009

  2. Lineout • Introduction - research questions and methods • What is a coalition? • Coalitions and the EES until 2006 • Flexicurity - from the first references to the common principles • Discussion and conclusions

  3. 1. Introduction – research questions and methods Flexicuirty at the EU-level • Council adoption in December 2007 of a set of ‘common FC principles’ Literature on FC at the EU-level • so far no analyses on how and to what extent the supporters of FC, on the one hand, and the skeptical voices, on the other hand, co-operated and influenced the outcome of the decision-making process. Research questions and methods • 1) to what extent coalitions have influenced the decision-making process of the common principles of flexicuirty • 2) if these coalitions differ from coalitions known from previous decision-making processes on European employment policies • 3) if these coalitions follow expectations from regime theory • starting point a previous study: ‘minimalist’ and ‘regulation’ coalition • data-sources:interviews with key decision-makers and documents • work in progress

  4. 2. What is a coalition? Advocacy Coalition Approach by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith • are knitted together by a common belief system • operate within ‘policy subsystems’. There is often more than one coalition within a subsystem • to study a coalition, time perspective of one decade or more • a coalition change due to external changes Due & Madsen (1996) • two or more independent org. with the aim of achieving a specific goal, overcoming weaknesses or controlling actors outside the coalition • coalitions have no strong hierarchical structures or org. resources, have a short time-horizon • stitched together by narrowly defined interests vis-à-vis an ‘enemy’ • a common set of basic values is not necessarily present in a coalition Coalitions in the present analysis • use both these contributions, - the long time, + common belief system

  5. 3. Coalitions and the EES until 2006 Two studies of the formation of the EES in the mid-1990s • Johansson (1999): Party of European Socialists’ (PES) working group; Director-General for Empl. (Allan Larson); former TU-officials as prime ministers; socialist governments; the enlargement with SW and FL • van der Riel & van der Meer (2002): ‘advocacy coalition’ for the European empl. policy. Allan Larsen; PES group; COM; EP; SW Studies of EES’ revisions 2002 – 2006 (Mailand 2004; 2006) • ‘minimalist coalition’ - UK, DK, NL, ES, (SW, AU, D) • ‘regulation coalition’- COM, BL, LX, PT, IT, GR, (F) • open question which of the two coalitions can be said to have been most successful in influencing the revisions of the EES in 2003 • the coalitions seem to have played a less explicit role in the 2005 EES revision • the new MS and the new COM have strengthened the positions of minimalist coalition

  6. 4. Flexicurity - from the first European references to the common principles The entrance of flexicurity at the EU-level • the concept has been sneaking its way into the employment guidelines • reactions to the COM’s green-paper on labour law in 2006: the sweet icing designed to help you swallow the bitter liberalisation pill The agenda setting phase • Austrian Presidency invited EMCO to set-up of an FC working-group • expert-group that should help clarify the still ill-defined FC concept: ‘flexibility and reliable employment conditions’; ‘comprehensive strategies for LLL’; ‘efficient ALMP’; and ‘modern social-security systems’ • BL, BU, GR, ES, F, IT, CY, LX and HU issued a four page common statement with the title Enhancing Social Europe • the pro-FC countries all found within the minimalist-coalition: DK, UK, NL, AU and – to some extent – SW

  7. 4. Flexicurity - from the first European references to the common principles (cont.) Towards the draft principles Reasons that COM succeeded in getting support for a communication: • support from a new country (Austria) • presence of chair of EMCO from the NL, one of the other FC supporters • the change of government in FR in May 2007. Reduced the powers of the regulation coalition June 2007 communication: four components and eight draft common principles • adapted to suit the individual countries’ conditions • reduce the gulf between insiders and outsiders on the LM • support mobility • requires mutual trust and social dialogue • the document presented proposals for four ‘FC pathways’

  8. 4. Flexicurity - from the first European references to the common principles (cont.) Response to the communication – summer and autumn 2007 • positive from the employers’ federations and the Northern European member states • the Central and, particularly, Southern European member states and the trade unions remained skeptical • heavy pressure on the European social partners that agreed to a concise compromise on FC The final principles December 2007 - a few differences from the draft • no references to the FC pathways in the final version of the common principles • no references to insiders and outsiders in the labour market • in order to get everyone on board, it had been necessary to give the regulation coalition and other stakeholders some concessions

  9. 5. Conclusions First question: to what extent coalitions have influenced? • The coalitions have played an important role in the decision-making process leading up to the adoption of the common FC principles Second question: coalitions differ from known coalitions? • the ‘minimalist’ and the ‘regulation coalition’ can still be found. Changes: • the DG Employment no longer part of the regulation coalition • France is no longer part of the regulation coalition • Spain is now firmly based in the regulation coalition • These changes have seriously weakened the regulation coalition. The inclusion of new countries in the regulation coalition has not been able to counter balance the losses

More Related