Deadline : 15 January 2014

Panel T03P14 - The europeanization of social partners

Chair

• Hélène Caune, Università degli studi di Milano, helene.caune@sciencespo.fr
• Angie Gago, University of Milan, angie.gago@unimi.it

Discussants

• Graziano Paolo, paolo.graziano@unibocconi.it
• Jessoula Matteo, matteo.jessoula@unimi.it

This panel aims at studying how the representation of employers and employees involved in decision-making processes at the national level has been influenced by European integration.

Although crucial issues such as collective bargaining, wage-settings mechanisms and union membership are still organized at the national level (Erne 2008) and trade-unions strategies largely remain within the realm of the national states, European integration has nevertheless been developed to a stage that potentially impact social partners’ capacity to influence national decision-making processes and policy content, their behavior and their strategies. While industrial relations have been organized differently within European member states, they are experiencing common European pressures. Facing such common pressures, how do social partners have reacted to these changes and what determines their strategies (and the efficiency) to fulfill trade-unions preferences? How have they been reacting to the development of a political space at the European level?

To answer these questions, the panel welcomes communications from different political science perspectives. Papers will study the internal dimension of social partners representation, that is their structure and organization. They will also address the external dimension, that is, the configurations of power at the national level and their interaction with other actors (other social partners, political parties, political leaders, administrative actors…).

The comparative dimension is particularly welcomed, e.g., comparisons between different/similar social policy sectors (health, family, pensions, employment policies), comparisons between different/similar units-level (state, regional, trade-unions, sectorial confederations…). Communications will study how European integration has influenced the internal and external dimensions of employers’ and employees’ representation, and will discuss their capacity to foster national policy changes.

A particular attention will be devoted to the analysis of decision-making processes and industrial relations systems at the national level as well as to the strategies of employers’ and employees’ representations, the resources and repertories they tend to mobilize to impose their policy preferences and to build coalitions with others actors. Communications will also be interested in the constraints social partners have to deal with in such processes. Finally, a specific focus on the current euro crisis and its implications for social partners’ activities is particularly welcomed.

Propose yout paper: http://www.icpublicpolicy.org/conference/article/article.php?conference=2&article=138