Towards a More Social Europe? The Role of Welfare State Regimes in the Implementation of the European Semester’s Social Policy Recommendations

The European Semester plays a pivotal role in the European Union’s social policy coordination and the promotion of social rights. This thesis analyses the effectiveness of the Semester in shaping domestic social policy reform by introducing welfare state regimes as a new, previously overlooked explanatory factor. Using the concepts of willingness, capacity and legitimacy from the compliance literature, the thesis sheds light on how different welfare state regimes respond to the Semester’s country-specific recommendations. The study compiles a new dataset with quantitative data from various sources and uses multilevel logistic regression to demonstrate the significant differences across welfare regimes. Social-democratic and liberal welfare states are found to implement the social recommendations of the European Semester to the highest extent, while countries with a conservative, post-communist and Southern European regime lag behind. The findings have important implications for EU...Show moreThe European Semester plays a pivotal role in the European Union’s social policy coordination and the promotion of social rights. This thesis analyses the effectiveness of the Semester in shaping domestic social policy reform by introducing welfare state regimes as a new, previously overlooked explanatory factor. Using the concepts of willingness, capacity and legitimacy from the compliance literature, the thesis sheds light on how different welfare state regimes respond to the Semester’s country-specific recommendations. The study compiles a new dataset with quantitative data from various sources and uses multilevel logistic regression to demonstrate the significant differences across welfare regimes. Social-democratic and liberal welfare states are found to implement the social recommendations of the European Semester to the highest extent, while countries with a conservative, post-communist and Southern European regime lag behind. The findings have important implications for EU policy-makers on how to further tailor country-specific recommendations in order to increase their implementation rates. This, in turn, can contribute to creating a more social Europe and improving welfare reforms that address complex social issues such as poverty and education.Show less

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Towards a More Social Europe? The Role of Welfare State Regimes in the Implementation of the European Semester’s Social Policy Recommendations