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The European Social Model: Modernisation or Evolution. By Nick Adnett and Stephen Hardy, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2005; pp xix + 244; ISBN 1 84376 125 4, £49.50 / $85.50

Reviewed by Diamond Ashiagbor, University College London.

 

In the wake of the Lisbon European Council meeting in 2000, at which the heads of state and government of the EU committed themselves to “modernising the European social model”, the need to capture what is meant by this term has become more pressing. Conflicting understandings abound, whether one adopts the perspective of the European Trade Union Confederation, that the European social model (ESM) is a “vision of society” which implies “full employment, good quality jobs, equal opportunities, social protection for all”, or that of the European Commission, that the ESM is primarily to be understood in contrast to the US model of labour market and welfare regulation, or even that of the UK government that the EU needs to move from the “older, inward looking model” in order to become more flexible.

 

In such a context, this book on the past and future of the ESM is welcome and timely. Taking as a starting point the question whether the ESM is sustainable in the wake of the post-Lisbon drive for greater competitiveness and the enlargement of the EU to 25 states, this book argues against the inevitability of the decline of social Europe.

 

The first two chapters are primarily historical, but the authors nevertheless present material with which scholars of EU integration may be already familiar – the evolution of the EU’s social dimension and the development of legal powers in the social field – in a fresh, succinct manner. Whilst acknowledging that “there can be no presumption that government intervention at either European or national level will always be harmful or beneficial” (p 63) the book offers a robust defence of labour market regulation – but one from primarily within the economic paradigm, namely an efficiency argument for social policy. Ultimately, however, in reviewing the costs and benefits of regulation, this chapter fails to connect such economic analysis with the rights-based approach to labour market regulation premised on a “strengthened role for social rights” (p 199) which characterises the remainder of the book.

 

The book’s substantive areas of analysis encompass those traditionally within the purview of European social policy, namely, employment-related social policy, such as occupational health and safety; equal opportunities and anti-discrimination; the regulation of worker participation. Having analysed the regulatory objectives comprising the ESM, the book turns to the regulatory techniques adopted to bring such policies to fruition. It is here that such a book, and arguably the ESM itself, has most to offer scholars of European integration. The authors are cognisant of the retreat from hard law within EU social policy, in the attempt to modernise the ESM. However, the concluding chapter, in particular the discussion of ‘new governance’ and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, requires further analysis of the contribution that soft law mechanisms such as the ‘open method of coordination’ can make. A tantalising conclusion, which needs further elaboration, is that “the adoption of the Open Method of Coordination … could be seen as a recognition of the political inability to make the perceived necessary reforms of hard law” (p 211).

 

What is nevertheless meritorious is that the authors, by background an economist and a lawyer, succeed in utilising an approach to the study of EU social policy which combines both disciplines to useful effect.