This book examines how and to what extent the European Employment Strategy and the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) on Social Protection and Social Inclusion have influenced national labour market and social welfare policies.

Focusing on the implementation of the OMC in different national environments, this book examines how the proposals and targets of the OMC are interpreted and implemented within the context of existing national employment and welfare regimes. At a theoretical level and on the basis of national case studies, the book considers how OMC objectives, guidelines, targets, and recommendations may reshape the domestic institutional framework, how learning and participation of governmental bodies are organized across different hierarchical levels, and how non-state actors may be involved in the formulation and implementation of national reform plans. The authors conclude that the OMC has contributed significantly to both substantive and procedural reforms, in spite of the many institutional barriers to Europeanization in this policy area.

Featuring comparative case studies across a number of European states, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, political science, public policy, and international relations.

• Book Cover 2
• Title 7
• Copyright 8
• Contents 9
• Illustrations 11
• Acknowledgements 12
• Contributors 13
• Abbreviations 15
• Introduction 17
• 1 The Open Method of Coordination: A pathway to the gradual transformation of national employment and welfare regimes? 26
• 2 Neither convergence nor frozen paths: Bounded learning, international diffusion of reforms, and the Open Method of Coordinatio 53
• 3 Unemployment protection reform in Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, and the UK: Policy learning through open coordination? 77
• 4 The Open Method of Coordination and domestic social policy making in Belgium and France: Window dressing, one-way impact, or r 100
• 5 Joining the European Employment Strategy: Europeanization of labour market policy in the Baltic states 128
• 6 Soft Europeanization?: The differential influence of the European Employment Strategy in Belgium, Spain, and Sweden 150