"The diffusion thesis? EU governance in the social policy field"

Johnson, Ailish. (2001) "The diffusion thesis? EU governance in the social policy field". In: UNSPECIFIED, Madison, Wisconsin. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The paper examines EU governance in the social policy field, in particular the following sub-issue areas: health and safety policy, the social dialogue process, and the European Employment Pact. The quality of governance in these sub-issue areas is assessed using the indicators suggested by Wolfgang Wessels' fusion thesis: binding outputs, institutional growth, procedural differentiation, the presence of intermediary groups, and the transfer of competencies. This paper suggests that the fusion thesis needs to be complemented by further indicators in order to assess the quality of governance ... different levels of both fusion and diffusion exist in the sub-issue areas of social policy. Health and safety policy has a high degree of fusion, but recent framework directives illustrate that diffusion may be much lower than might be expected. The social dialogue exhibits high levels of both fusion and diffusion, but only along narrow, issue-specific bands. The EEP possesses low levels of fusion but high levels of diffusion. EU governance in the social policy field indicates that integration cannot be captured by measuring binding outputs, or even by the proliferation of actors and institutions at the EU level, but must be accompanied by an assessment of normative indicators and their application in member states.

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