Book Review: The European Social Model: Modernisation or Evolution?
| Author | Liana Giorgi |
| Date | 01 June 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826270600800206 |
| Published date | 01 June 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
Nick Adnett and Stephen Hardy, The European Social Model: Modernisation or
Evolution? Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2005, xix + 244 pp., ISBN 1-84376-125-4
European social policy, understood as policy initiated by European supra-national
institutions, is first and foremost about employment policy and, perhaps even more
distinctively, about labour market regulation. From this perspective, there are good
reasons for the authors of this book to focus their attention on labour market
regulation when discussing the European social model. The analysis is focused on five
areas: (a) workers’ rights in the face of increasing flexibility in contractual
arrangements; (b) workplace health and safety; (c) equal treatment in employment,
with special focus on women and the labour market; (d) employment protection in the
case of redundancies and business transfers; (e) consultation and participation at the
work place.
In all of these areas there has been extensive EU legislative activity in the form of
regulations and directives as well as notable case law rulings by the Euro pean Court of
Justice. EU activity is best described as an attempt to control for the possible negative
implications of economic integration with regard to social standards. In part, but only
in part, it has been motivated by a genuine desire to pro-actively set substantive social
standards or define social rights.
Balancing economic and social objectives, or economic efficiency with social
protection is thus at the heart of EU employment policy. This is undoubtedly not an
easy task. Because of the slow transposition of directives at the Member State level – a
process that is further complicated by derogations and subsidiarity – it is an even
harder task when it is pursued through the legislative route. In this pre-federal Europe,
the European Court of Justice has a key function and its rulings have had a formative
role on contemporary European social policy-making as a ‘third way’ approach for
meeting the challenges of the new economy and globalisation.
As anticipated by the theoretical economics literature, and demonstrated by
empirical studies, there are limits to regulation. Empirical studies, in particular,
highlight the way in which regulation depends on contextual factors for success, and
point to the need for a careful fine-tuning between market forces and structures on the
one hand and state intervention on the other. In recognition of this, European
employment policy has shifted attention away from legislative instruments towards
flexible governance arrangements or what the authors call ‘soft law’ for regulating the
European Journal of Social Security, Volume 8 (2006), No. 2 217
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