Campaigning on expertise: how the OECD framed EU welfare and labour market policies – and why success could trigger failure

Abstract

Campaigning on expertise: how the OECD framed EU welfare and labour market policies -and why success could trigger failure Dostal The article first sketches the increased Europeanization of welfare and labour market policies throughout the 1990s. The second part examines how international organizations such as the OECD influence agenda-setting at different levels of policy-making by providing a controlled environment for the creation, development and dissemination of political discourse. The OECD's influence on policy-making can be explained through an analysis of the specific features of its 'organizational discourse', dominated by liberal economists, and characterized by the exclusion of interest groups. The third part takes the OECD Jobs Study (1994)as an exemplary case of its organizational discourse and demonstrates how the OECD utilized this study to bridge the gap between abstract liberal economic beliefs and concrete agenda-setting efforts. It underlines the high degree of influence of the Jobs Study on the EU's subsequent European Employment Strategy (EES). The conclusion poses the question: to what extent could the OECD's 'campaigning on expertise' potentially weaken its long-term institutional interests if the EU chooses to 'take over' OECD discourses wholesale -thereby leaving less organizational space for the OECD in the future?

Standardizing and disseminating knowledge: the role of the OECD in global governance

“…International organizations such as the OECD function as important nodes in these networks, which, taken as a whole, constitute an uneven, incomplete, and contested system of transnational governance. The OECD is a little studied international organization that has been described in various terms: 'rich man's club', international think tank or even 'shared state apparatus' (Dostal, 2004). Formed in the heyday of the Keynesian-welfare state, 1 the OECD initially emphasized the coordination of members' policies but later, this gave way to a focus on establishing 'best practices' (Wolfe, 2008).…”

“…12 More broadly, Dostal (2004) estimated that of the OECD's professional staff of 858, Americans (133) were only exceeded by the French (182). 13 Many of these are economists, trained in neo-classical economics, a discipline in which the US increasingly sets the standard.…”

Tying Up the Loose Ends: The Determinants of Active Labour Market Policy in the Western Countries 1985-2013

“…The first refer to the adoption of policies because of specific coercive mechanisms. These may be rivalries between neighbouring countries seeking a competitive edge (Stone, 2000) or the coercive directives and regulations of the EU (Dostal, 2004). Soft mechanisms include national policy recommendations and guidelines.…”

Future Scenarios for the European Higher Education Area: Exploring the Possibilities of “Experimentalist Governance”

“…Broadly, where Bologna discourses have been strategically constructed in this manner, one might identify West European and EU accession state versions of the pattern. The term is borrowed from Dostal's (2004) study of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), though presently conceptualized in a somewhat different manner.…”