The Politics of Post-Crisis EU Social Policy

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the effects that EU economic integration has had on the social spending patterns of member states and on advancing the goals of ‘social Europe’. It explores general trends in social spending across EU member states in the pre-crisis period and identifies how these patterns have been altered by changes in EU macroeconomic governance structures and EU policies in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. It pays close attention to the increased politicization that has occurred over social and economic policies since the start of the crisis and the implications of these new dynamics for further EU integration. Whereas the EU integration process in the pre-crisis period was defined by a ‘permissive consensus’ which allowed elite actors to pursue ever greater union with broad, if tacit, public support, since the crisis a ‘constraining dissensus’ has emerged in which further integration has been subject to far greater political contestation (Hooghe and Marks 2008). The inherent asymmetries between EU economic and social governance and policy goals in many ways has enabled this increased politicization. This has raised serious questions about the input legitimacy of the EU, namely issues of democratic deficit, and output legitimacy in terms of the effectiveness of EU policy outcomes in providing social and economic stability for all people. This paper seeks to identify the challenges and politics of post-crisis developments in regards to EU integration and social and economic policy outcomes.