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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Inside the Social Open Method of Coordination: The hard politics of ‘soft’ governance Vanhercke, B.W.R. Publication date 2016 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Vanhercke, B. W. R. (2016). Inside the Social Open Method of Coordination: The hard politics of ‘soft’ governance. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:29 Sep 2021 Inside the Social Open Method of Coordination The Hard Politics of ‘Soft’ Governance Bart VANHERCKE Produced by Plan 2000 Inc - 1060 Brussels Cover illustration ‘Amazonite-Morganite’ © by Karina Eibatova Copyright © 2016 by Bart Vanhercke All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise – without prior written permission of the author. Vanhercke, Bart (2016) Inside the Social Open Method of Coordination: the Hard Politics of ‘Soft’ Governance, Doctoral thesis, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam. Inside the Social Open Method of Coordination The Hard Politics of ‘Soft’ Governance ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT Ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam Op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Prof. dr. D.C. VAN DEN BOOM Ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op donderdag 31 maart 2016, te 14.00 uur Door Bart Wilhelmus R. VAN HERCKE Geboren te Ndekesha, Congo Promotiecommissie: Promotor: Prof. dr. J.H. Zeitlin Universiteit van Amsterdam Copromotor: Prof. dr. J. Visser Universiteit van Amsterdam Overige leden: Prof. dr. B.M. Burgoon Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. dr. M. Ferrera University of Milan Prof. dr. A.C. Hemerijck Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Dr. R.M. Sanchez Salgado Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. dr. F.I.P. Vandenbroucke Universiteit van Amsterdam Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen The research for this PhD benefited from the funding by the Shifts in Governance Programme of the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO), the Belgian Science Policy Office (Society and Future Research Programme) and the European Commission. All opinions, interpretations, errors and omissions are the sole responsibility of the author. To those dearly departed Hilde, Joris, Jos B., Jos M. and Opa To the littl’uns who grew so tall while this book was being written Sander, Charlotte and Pieter To my love and soulmate Veerle CONTENTS DANKBETUIGING .............................................................................................................................. v CHAPTER 1: The hard politics of ‘soft’ governance: setting the scene .......................................... 1 Introduction: the founding fathers’ fundamental assumptions ............................................................ 1 1.1 The debate about ‘social Europe’ five decades on .......................................................................... 3 1.2 Open coordination and new modes of governance ..................................................................... 12 1.3 How the EU and its Member States interact: a ‘Europeanisation’ perspective ............... 22 1.4 Research design: questions, hypothesis and case studies ........................................................ 27 1.5 Research methodology: collecting the data .................................................................................... 36 1.6 PhD outline and acknowledgements ................................................................................................. 47 CHAPTER 2: Political spill-over, changing advocacy coalition, path dependency or domestic politics? Theorizing the emergence of the Social OMC’s.............................................. 89 Introduction: why did they do it? ................................................................................................................... 89 2.1 Theories of European Integration: between eclecticism and ‘grand theory’ ................... 90 2.2 Ten steps towards the launch of the social protection OMC’s ............................................. 103 2.3 Theorizing the emergence of the social protection OMC’s .................................................... 107 2.4 Conclusions: towards a constructivist interpretation of neofunctionalism .................. 112 CHAPTER 3: Variations in institutionalisation of the Social OMC’s: the choice for non- constitutionalisation and the emergence of ‘hard soft law’ ........................................................ 121 3.1 Policy coordination after Lisbon ...................................................................................................... 121 3.2 Social inclusion: a sense of urgency, leading to a full-blown OMC..................................... 125 3.3 Pensions: a more prudent approach, leading to a ‘partial’ OMC ......................................... 132 3.4 Health care: the European Commission’s purposive opportunism, Member States’ foot-dragging and discursive juggling ........................................................................................... 138 3.5 Beyond the surface of the streamlined Social OMC .................................................................. 144 3.6 Making sense of differences and similarities in ‘soft law’ modalities and procedures: the concept of legalization .................................................................................................................. 146 3.7 Conclusion: the emergence of ‘hard soft law’ ............................................................................. 154 CHAPTER 4: Benchmarking social Europe a decade on: demystifying the OMC’s learning tools ................................................................................................................ 163 4.1 Introduction: puzzle, scope and limitations ................................................................................ 163 4.2 Setting the scene: from an unidentified political object to the OMC ................................. 165 4.3 Benchmarking within the Social Open Method of Coordination (2000–2010): how did it really work? ........................................................................................................................ 170 4.4 Europe 2020 Strategy: is there still room for social benchmarking? ............................... 187 4.5 Wrapping things up: benchmarking in the social OMC demystified ................................. 192 i Inside the Social Open Method of Coordination: the Hard Politics of ‘Soft’ Governance CHAPTER 5: Delivering the goods for Europe 2020? The Social OMC’s adequacy and impact re-assessed ..................................................................................................................................... 199 5.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................. 199 5.2 The edequacy of the Social OMC’s toolbox: mixed evidence (at best) .............................. 200 5.3 Assessing the impact of the Social OMC: procedural and substantive effects ‘on the ground’......................................................................................................................................... 207 5.4 Mechanisms of change: explaining the discrepancy between the OMC’s adequacy and impact ................................................................................................................................................. 213 5.5 Conclusions and next steps ................................................................................................................ 214 CHAPTER 6: The OMC and domestic social policy making in Belgium and France – Window dressing, one-way impact, or reciprocal influence? ..................................................... 223 6.1 Theoretical lenses for studying mechanisms and effects of ‘soft’ governance ............. 224 6.2 Traces of Eve: the (in)effectiveness of the OMC in action ..................................................... 225 6.3 Summary and conclusions .................................................................................................................. 243 CHAPTER 7: Against the odds. The OMC as a selective amplifier for reforming Belgian pension policies ........................................................................................................................................... 251 7.1 ‘Soft law’ versus sticky entities ........................................................................................................