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Soft Europeanisation of Work-Family Reconciliation Policy-Making? Social, Policy and Political Learning among German MPs

Gühlstorf, Alisa LU (2015) WPMM40 20151
Department of Political Science
Abstract
The EES, Lisbon and Europe 2020 are the most relevant soft law strategies promoting the improvement of work-family reconciliation-related policies in the EU Member States. In this study, the cases of the German Elterngeld reforms are applied to scrutinise the influences of these three strategies on domestic policy-making. Thus, this research work is based on the theoretical framework of soft Europeanisation and its concomitant social, policy and political learning mechanisms. By means of subject literature, official documents and interviews with German MPs, it is sought to what extent German MPs were influenced by the three EU soft law strategies throughout the policy-making of the two Elterngeld reforms. Although the German reforms... (More)
The EES, Lisbon and Europe 2020 are the most relevant soft law strategies promoting the improvement of work-family reconciliation-related policies in the EU Member States. In this study, the cases of the German Elterngeld reforms are applied to scrutinise the influences of these three strategies on domestic policy-making. Thus, this research work is based on the theoretical framework of soft Europeanisation and its concomitant social, policy and political learning mechanisms. By means of subject literature, official documents and interviews with German MPs, it is sought to what extent German MPs were influenced by the three EU soft law strategies throughout the policy-making of the two Elterngeld reforms. Although the German reforms strongly coincide with the EU soft law strategies, both content-related and time-wise, this study concludes that EU soft law influence on domestic policy-making concerning work-family reconciliation is overestimated. The effectiveness of EU soft law and concomitant domestic policy paradigm shifts are highly dependent on MP’s interests, pre-existing policies, socioeconomic issues, the domestic political climate and societal discourse. Soft Europeanisation learning mechanisms seem to solely occur in unilateral, clustered, asymmetric processes; yet only among MPs willing to learn from effective work-family reconciliation policy models from MSs with comparable political socioeconomic structures. (Less)
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author
Gühlstorf, Alisa LU
supervisor
organization
course
WPMM40 20151
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
German Elterngeld reforms, domestic policy-making, soft Europeanisation learning mechanisms, EU soft law strategies, work-family reconciliation
language
English
id
7758660
date added to LUP
2015-09-09 17:38:59
date last changed
2015-09-09 17:38:59
@misc{7758660,
  abstract     = {{The EES, Lisbon and Europe 2020 are the most relevant soft law strategies promoting the improvement of work-family reconciliation-related policies in the EU Member States. In this study, the cases of the German Elterngeld reforms are applied to scrutinise the influences of these three strategies on domestic policy-making. Thus, this research work is based on the theoretical framework of soft Europeanisation and its concomitant social, policy and political learning mechanisms. By means of subject literature, official documents and interviews with German MPs, it is sought to what extent German MPs were influenced by the three EU soft law strategies throughout the policy-making of the two Elterngeld reforms. Although the German reforms strongly coincide with the EU soft law strategies, both content-related and time-wise, this study concludes that EU soft law influence on domestic policy-making concerning work-family reconciliation is overestimated. The effectiveness of EU soft law and concomitant domestic policy paradigm shifts are highly dependent on MP’s interests, pre-existing policies, socioeconomic issues, the domestic political climate and societal discourse. Soft Europeanisation learning mechanisms seem to solely occur in unilateral, clustered, asymmetric processes; yet only among MPs willing to learn from effective work-family reconciliation policy models from MSs with comparable political socioeconomic structures.}},
  author       = {{Gühlstorf, Alisa}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Soft Europeanisation of Work-Family Reconciliation Policy-Making? Social, Policy and Political Learning among German MPs}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}