ASTK15423U COURSE: EU social policies and the welfare states

The course will examine European Union social policy integration and its impact on the national welfare states. A broad definition of social policy will be taken, including healthcare, education and the labour market. We will take a historical and contemporary view on how and through which dynamics an EU social policy has evolved and which impact it has had on national policies and administrative practices. The dynamics of European social integration will be analysed theoretically, using and contrasting neo-functionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism, institutionalism, including an actor-centered approach as well as include different approaches to the study of law and politics. But equal weight will be given to the empirical study of dynamics and content of an EU social policy. To what extent has integration been driven forward by the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union, in the absence or incapacity of politics? EU social policy has long been held to be a process left to courts and markets, but this course will bring in the role of politics, interests and the EU legislators, i.e. the European Council and the European Parliament in the gradual development of the policy domain. In the examination of impact on the welfare states, a comparative approach will be taken in order to understand and explain why adaptation to and impact of EU integration differ between member states, across policies and eventually time. 

The course will provide tehoretical and analytical insights into a wide range of welfare policy integration and Europeanisation themes such as: cross border healthcare in teh European Union, patient and professional mobility in the European Union, interaction between EU internal market principles and national labour market regulation, EU austerity easures and their impact on national welfare policies, free movement and cross border welfare, currently politicisised as ‘welfare tourism’. The political and legal development and impact of these policy areas are analysed and discussed, their differentiated form and the extent to which they are implemented and complied with as well as the course will place them analytically into debates of sovereignity, legitimacy and accountability.    

Organisation

The course is taught as one of the electives of the Specialization in European Union Studies. The course is, however, also open to students in general, who have a basic knowledge and interest in the European Union and the study hereof. The course will be taught in English, 3 hours pr. week in the last 10 weeks of the autumn semester. This means that the course will start first week of October.