The Role of International Organizations in Social Policy : Ideas, Actors and Impact

This book illustrates how welfare policy is shaped by the interplay between national and international policymakers. The authors focus on the role of ideas rather than revisiting the more commonly discussed economic and technological issues associated with internationalization of welfare policy. They explore the content of ideas that international actors such as the EU and the OECD are promoting through recommendations and decrees concerning various systems of social policy. The possible effects of national and supranational welfare discourses on national welfare systems are also discussed. Annotation The Role of International Organizations in Social Policy makes an important contribution to the research about social policy of nation states that are increasingly integrated both in terms of socio-economic integration and in terms of membership of international organizations. The main strength of the book is to look at ideas and the way they travel between IO and nation states. This book is important for research in the field since it reviews the scattered literature and applies analytical perspectives to selected international organizations and their social policy recommendations. In some regards it explores new grounds and offers analyses, which may be an important contribution to an emerging scientific discussion on the role of international organizations and ideas in national welfare states. We lack analyses of various international organizations and their social policy recommendations. In this regard it is one of the first encompassing contributions in the field of IO and social policy. Klaus Armingeon, University of Berne, Switzerland This book considers the role of international organizations and their promotion of ideas and recommendations in social and health policy. It explores a wide range of organizations, scrutinizing their ideas-based content, their role as policy actors and their impact on national policy. What is the role of international organizations in the making of national social policy ideas and practices? What is the content of ideas advocated by international organizations? In examining these and other questions this book presents a range of international organizations dealing with social and health policies. The authors illustrate how welfare policy is shaped by the interplay between national and international policy-makers, focusing on the role of ideas rather than revisiting the more commonly discussed economic and technological issues associated with internationalization of welfare policy. They explore the content of ideas that international actors such as the EU and the OECD are promoting through recommendations and decrees concerning various systems of social policy. The possible effects of national and supranational welfare discourses on national welfare systems are also discussed. Dealing with both with the normative and cognitive dimensions of social and health policy discourses, this comprehensive book will prove invaluable to policy-makers as well practitioners within international organizations. It will also strongly appeal to scholars of international studies, public policy and social policy Contents......Page 6 Figures......Page 7 Tables......Page 8 Contributors......Page 9 Preface......Page 10 1. Introduction......Page 12 2. Comparing social policy ideas within the EU and the OECD......Page 31 3. Directly-deliberative polyarchy: a suitable democracy model for European social policy?......Page 60 4. Combating social exclusion in the European Union......Page 83 5. Policy making and application of law: free movement of persons and the European Court of Justice......Page 105 6. EU and OECD advice and changes in German family policy: can reforms be attributed to participation in learning processes?......Page 122 7. Policy actors, ideas and power: EU and OECD pension policy recommendations and national policies in Norway and the UK......Page 149 8. In search of a new approach to pension policy: the International Labour Offi ce between internal tension and external pressure......Page 176 9. Towards a European convergence in pension policy outputs? Evidence from the OMC on pensions......Page 201 10. Global health policy: what role for internatio......Page 223 Index......Page 258 Illustrates how welfare policy is shaped by the interplay between national and international policymakers. This book focuses on the role of ideas rather than revisiting the more commonly discussed economic and technological issues associated with internationalization of welfare policy This text illustrates how welfare policy is shaped by the interplay between national and international policymakers. The author focuses on the role of ideas rather than revisiting the more commonly discussed economic and technological issues