The Trend towards the European Deregulation of Professions and Its Impact on Portugal under Crisis

For the first time, European professional deregulation is the focus of reflection by social scientists. This book explores how professional associations act as pressure groups and highlights the democratic regime that is prevailing and the potential convergence problems that Europe may face. After a conceptual reflection on the different professional regulation patterns in Europe, this book explores the main features of the currently ongoing European professional deregulation policies. It focuses on the current changes in Portugal where there seems to be an important increase of self-regulating professional associations despite the European deregulation trend and highlights the fact that experts cannot stay away any longer from the prevailing changes in society nor should they remain confined to their specific disciplines Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-4 European Patterns of Professional Regulation: National and International Theorizing....Pages 5-17 The (De)Regulation of the Liberal Professions in the European Union....Pages 18-54 Portuguese Occupational Group Trends Running Counter to EU Policies....Pages 55-77 Deontological and Methodological Research Questions in Portuguese Sociology of Professions....Pages 78-92 Conclusion....Pages 93-97 Back Matter....Pages 98-100