"A Regulatory Conundrum: Building a Regime for EC Social and Labour Market Policy"

Rhodes, Martin. (1993) "A Regulatory Conundrum: Building a Regime for EC Social and Labour Market Policy". In: UNSPECIFIED, Washington, DC. (Unpublished)

Preview

PDF Download (2487Kb) | Preview

Abstract

[From the Introduction]. The aim of this paper is to discuss the attempted construction of a regulatory regime for European social and labour market policy. While it is clear that the concept of a European welfare state with harmonised social security structures to which Brittan alludes is infeasible - not least because the European Community lacks the resources required engage in largescale redistributive policies - as Giandomenico Majone has pointed out, this does not prevent it from undertaking ambitious programmes of social (and economic) regulation for the political and administrative costs of most regulatory programmes are borne by the regulated (firms and individuals) rather than the regulator. (4) But this begs the question of how that regulatory structure is to be built. What are the political and practical limits to the creation of a pan-European policy regime in this area? How effective can a structure of regulation or governance in this sector be given (a) the diversity of historical, legal and institutional traditions among the EC 12 and (b) the infinite scope for discord over two key regulatory issues: the desirability of new regulation in labour markets at either the national or supranational level and the acceptability of the assumption of Community competence in this domain, with all that implies for the hallowed if notoriously imprecise notion of 'subsidiarity'?

Actions (login required)