Europäische Sozialpolitik (English shop)

Zur Effizienz (supra-)nationaler Sozialpolitik

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Since its emergence, social policy has been regarded as a phenomenon resulting directly from the nation state. It was politically conceived within the nation state and has become indispensable there. Parties of various provenances are available as sponsors of social policy performance. Above all, social policy seeks to compensate for the consequences of life risks. Beyond the security of the citizen, however, a welfare state also ideally aims to generate social justice in society. With the constitution of the European Economic Community and the accompanying cross-border mobility of goods and factors of production, social policy is also on the supranational agenda. If two political systems offer public goods such as security and justice, the characters of both social policies must be defined: are there areas of overlap, significant differences or striking interdependencies between the two social policy systems?

Social policy goes beyond the limits of allocative and distributive effects; it must also focus on system-stabilising effects that have hitherto scarcely been perceived. A politically undesirable scenario is established for both the nation state and the European Union if there is a departure from the path of a long-practised welfare status. The present study traces the paths of social policy development of both the welfare state of Germany and the European Union. Finally, European effects in two social policy fields are illustrated: legally binding equality policy and legally non-binding employment policy.