Journal of European Social Policy

This symposium considers Europe's global social policy through an exchange of ideas between scholars with different areas of expertise. The lead article provides an overview of the EU's objectives and instruments in promoting the social dimension of globalization, illustrating its focus on international labour standards and the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the shift from trade measures to a broader spectrum of soft external policy instruments. More specifically, we analyse the horizontal and vertical coherence of the EU's international social policies. The three other contributions to this symposium elaborate on this distinction by examining the social dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy, the `uploading' of the EU social model in the ILO, and the EU's promotion of corporate social responsibility in the world. These accounts suggest that market-enhancing goals often take priority over social objectives, and that the EU can at best be seen as a regional social power. In addition, the contributions point to the limitations of an ambitious EU role in this area.

In this article we take advantage of the availability of European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data to address both weak and strong versions of the Europeanization of reference groups thesis. The former proposes that common standards of evaluation emerge as a consequence of knowledge of conditions in other societies. The latter argues that people increasingly perceive themselves as part of a larger European stratification system. Our analysis leads us to reject both versions of the thesis. Material deprivation rather than having a uniform effect is highly dependent on national context. If a process of convergence is underway, it is one that as yet has had a limited impact. In circumstances where the Europeanization of inequality is raising issues relating to both national and transnational forms of legitimacy, it is important to understand that there is no necessary relationship between such Europeanization and the Europeanization of reference groups.

Job security regulations, here understood as restrictions on hiring and firing, figure prominently in the policy recommendations of international organizations or national reform programmes. However, in contrast to the prominence of job security regulations in the current reform discourse, hardly any attention is paid to their determinants. In this article, the insider/outsider theory of employment and unemployment is examined. Advocates of this approach argue that job security regulations mainly benefit the labour market insiders. As a consequence, insiders will fight all reforms that aim to dismantle these regulations. The insiders are supported by Social Democratic parties, which only represent the interests of the insiders. In this article it is maintained that this simple argument is wrong. Labour market outsiders can be expected to be equally supportive of job security regulations and Social Democratic parties as labour market insiders. This claim is supported by the empirical analysis using survey data.

The emergence of the category of 'new self-employment' presents a challenge for political actors in European countries. The new self-employed are exposed to the same social risks as dependent employees, but they generally enjoy fewer social and labour rights. How are social policymakers reacting to this situation? Our response to this question is structured as follows. First, comparing the situation in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, we briefly describe the factors which have contributed to the increase in self-employment and the structure of `new self-employment'. Second, we outline the initiatives to adjust legislation in these countries so as to accommodate new self-employment and those types of work that are found on the borderline between dependent employment and self-employment. We then describe the ways in which these types of work are considered under national labour legislation and the extent to which they are taken into account by the respective statutory social security systems. The main finding that emerges is that despite the similar challenges faced by the three countries, path-dependency has led national legislators to adopt very different strategies to adjust social security and labour law regulations.

Economic collapse in the former communist bloc saw the erosion of financial support and services for young children. Since 1998 even the poorer countries of the bloc have seen a return to economic growth. But have the benefits been felt by children? Drawing on administrative and household survey data, this article examines three aspects of government support for young children — maternity benefit, child allowances and preschool provision — in four countries in different parts of the region: Bulgaria, Albania, Moldova and Tajikistan. The article concludes that these services remain vastly inadequate. In some countries child allowances are well targeted towards poorer households, but are too small in size to have an impact. Preschool overwhelmingly benefits urban families and the better-off, while paid maternity leave is increasingly rare. Given what is known about the long-term impact of both early education and early childhood poverty, the findings are of considerable concern.