Markets and Moral Regulation: Cultural Change in the European Union (Themes in European Governance)

What effect is market integration having on national cultures and social policies? Paulette Kurzer examines Finnish and Swedish alcohol policy, Dutch drug decriminalization policy, and the Irish ban on abortion. She finds that regional integration is leading to adjustments that bring abortion, drug policy, and restrictive drinking measures into closer alignment within the EU. Kurzer's conclusion is that shifts in values and attitudes, affected in part by EU market integration, are bringing about a gradual convergence in morality norms. Cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 3 Series-title......Page 5 Title......Page 7 Copyright......Page 8 Contents......Page 9 Tables......Page 10 Preface......Page 11 1 Markets versus morality......Page 15 Cultural norms and national identity......Page 18 The European Union and morality norms......Page 24 Diffusion of norms and adaptation of European standards......Page 27 Agent of change: movement of people......Page 31 Cracks in the morality frameworks......Page 33 Europeanization of norms......Page 36 Looking ahead......Page 38 2 Binge drinking: the evolution of alcohol control policy in Finland......Page 41 Alcohol legislation, voluntary associations and prohibition......Page 44 The alcohol question in a broader context......Page 47 Institutions of the alcohol policy regime......Page 51 Ideas and rationalizing the commitment to temperance......Page 53 The impact of alcohol control policies......Page 59 Conclusion......Page 61 3 Our greatest social problem: anti-alcohol policy in Sweden......Page 63 A detour: why no restrictive drinking measures in Denmark?......Page 65 A century of Swedish anti-alcohol activism and debate......Page 68 Bratt system: 1917–1955......Page 72 Post-Bratt system: the creation of Systembolaget......Page 73 Rationalizing and preserving alcohol control policies......Page 76 Societal and state interests......Page 77 Ideas: rationalization of alcohol control policy......Page 79 Conclusion......Page 85 4 Nordic morality meets the European Union......Page 87 The Nordic countries and the application to join the European Union......Page 88 The alcohol question in the EU......Page 91 After membership......Page 95 Court case: Allmänna Åklagaren vs. Harry Franzén (C-189/95)......Page 98 Domestic trends and external pressures......Page 100 Conclusion......Page 108 5 Permissive pragmatism: drug control policy in the Netherlands......Page 111 Detour: Protestant nations and intoxication......Page 113 Institutions: law enforcement and drug policy in the 1970s......Page 120 Revision of the 1919 Opium Act in 1976......Page 122 Harm reduction in the 1980s......Page 124 Effectiveness of drug policy......Page 126 Contradictions and ambiguities......Page 129 Conclusion......Page 133 6 Harm reduction meets the EU: from public health to public order......Page 135 Constraints by Europe on national drug policy......Page 138 Diplomatic tension and drug tourism......Page 142 Institutional and political ramifications......Page 148 Conclusion......Page 155 7 Irish moral conservatism and European sexual permissiveness......Page 157 Catholic influence in Irish politics and institutions......Page 159 Catholic ethics and sexuality......Page 162 Abortion......Page 165 European membership and Irish law......Page 168 Pyrrhic victory......Page 173 Value change and encounters with the EU......Page 177 Conclusion......Page 182 8 The emergence of a European morality?......Page 184 Endurance of national norms......Page 186 Why change in the 1990s?......Page 188 Convergence and divergence......Page 194 European integration and cultural distinctiveness......Page 197 Bibliography......Page 200 Index......Page 220 Does European integration influence national cultures and social policies? Is Europe's fabled cultural diversity diminishing? In this book, Paulette Kurzer examines these important and topical questions by comparing the Irish abortion ban, Finnish and Swedish drinking restrictions, and Dutch drug decriminalization. Employing a synthesis of constructivist and institutionalist theories, Kurzer demonstrates that domestic shifts in values and attitudes, spurred along by the impact of EC/EU market integration, are in fact bringing about a convergence in European morality norms. Alcohol control policies are forced to liberalize, the Irish abortion proscription is being redefined, and Dutch drug toleration is pushed into a more punitive direction. Markets and Moral Regulation argues that a crucial agency is European law and its role as a market regulator: as market forces invade these cultural and moral spheres, protective barriers disintegrate. The result is that cultural and social domains are increasingly exposed to the influence of market competition. What effect is European integration having on national cultures and policies? Kurzer demonstrates how the impact of the single market has led to adjustments which have brought policy on moral issues such as abortion, drug policy, and restrictive drinking measures into closer alignment within the EU Charles Mackay (1814-89), a Scottish poet, journalist, song-writer, and author of Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, once wrote that nations, like individuals, have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness. Does European integration influence national cultures and social policies? Is Europe's fabled cultural diversity diminishing? This work examines these topical questions by comparing national legislation in a range of EU member states