After successfully passing this course, the student:
- has knowledge of and is familiar with different theories and types of welfare state regimes, economic theories on the relation between labour markets and welfare state arrangements as well as the relevant legal dimensions hereof;
- is able to trace economic, social, institutional and legal factors determining labour markets, protection of workers and residents, and types of welfare states;
- is able to compare European countries with regard to economic, social, and institutional variables within the EU context;
- is able to apply these insights on topical and to analyze related social policy issues on the possibilities and limitations for developing governance strategies.
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A main objective of the European Union is to take away barriers to free movement and to competition. The EU has also the objective to promote social aims, including the protection against poverty and social exclusion. For this purpose several EU instruments exist to counter negative effects of the internal market. These instruments have a limited scope only and Member States have retained important powers to organise their labour market and their welfare system. Between member states however, the legal and social-economic circumstances are quite different. In this course we will deal with the economic and legal aspects as well as the governance of the relation between welfare state and labour market within this EU context.
We start this course by looking at these topics from three angles. First we will describe the different welfare states regimes in the EU and analyse how within these regimes the relevant actors deal with tensions on the labour market. More in particular, we will analyse the differences between labour market and welfare state arrangements in Eastern European countries compared to Western European types of welfare states, like the traditional Continental/Bismarckian; the Anglosaxon/Residual and the Nordic types of welfare state. And we look at which changes in welfare state arrangements and labour markets European countries have experienced over the last decades.
A second focus is on theories on the relation between labour markets and welfare state arrangements. Welfare states have, among other things, to absorb market failures of the labour market, like unemployment or work accidents. While labour and unemployment systems have to absorb the unemployed from the labour market, they can also cause additional unemployment by creating labour market rigidities like dismissal protection law and employment traps.
The third angle is to look at the relevant legal instruments at the EU and at the national level. Where are what kind of legal powers located for social protection laws and labour rights, including the free movement of workers and posting, discrimination at the work place, collective dismissals and transfer of undertakings? How do these legal arrangements play a role within welfare states in the functioning of the labour market, in the impact of EU law and instruments on national systems and in the interrelation between Member States?
In using these three angles we will discuss institutional characteristics of the relation between welfare state regimes and the (internal) market, discuss the different levels (national, EU) and the different actors involved. Special attention is paid to the repertoires of intervention/action different actors have -from the EU and national governments to enterprises and NGO's- to deal with tensions on the labour market and social effects that come from market integration, labour migration and demographic changes.
This course consists of lectures, working groups discussing the assigned readings partly on the basis of articles presented by students. In the final paper you analyse the characteristics and the causes of a problem of tension in the labour markets in the EU or its memberstates. Analyse the role, functions and repertoire of the most important actors involved, formulate a motivated direction of change and formulate a policy strategy for the realisation of this new situation.
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