Framing European Integration in Germany and Italy: Is the EU Used to Justify Pension Reforms?

Stiller, Sabina

doi:10.1007/1-4020-4430-5_3

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…They may even use EC policy requirements as a leverage to do so, while shifting the 'blame' to the EU level (Smith, 1997). For instance, the Italian government has used EMU requirements as a leverage for realizing contentious economic reforms (Stiller, 2006). Thus, the problem is that the goodness of fit is an essentially apolitical concept that is not geared to explaining the domestic politics of compliance.…”

Section: Bringing Domestic Politics To the Forefrontmentioning

confidence: 99%

Europeanization Beyond the Goodness of Fit: Domestic Politics in the Forefront

2006

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This paper provides a critical assessment of the 'goodness of fit' hypothesis, which is central to the literature on Europeanization. According to this hypothesis, the ease of adaptation to European policies depends upon the extent to which these fit national policies and institutions. On the basis of a literature review and integration of research findings, we conclude that the goodness of fit lacks empirical and conceptual strength. We argue that part of the problem is that the relationship between the status quo and the response to the EU is spurious, as both variables are contingent upon the preferences or beliefs held by domestic political and administrative actors. This shortcoming has been recognized by advocates of the thesis, who have crafted more dynamic frameworks revolving around the goodness of fit by bringing in 'political' variables that may capture the overriding power of substantive positions of domestic policy-makers. However, we provide various examples showing that the goodness of fit is not a necessary condition for domestic change. We argue, therefore, that it would be theoretically sounder to directly focus on domestic preferences or beliefs, and no longer incorporate the goodness of fit into our models. We provide the outline of such an approach, building on rational choice and sociological institutionalism, giving some examples of particular models under these broad headings. We argue that such applications are more parsimonious than the expanded goodness of fit frameworks, in that they make the goodness of fit, and most of the additional variables suggested, redundant. In doing so, we hope to provide the foundations for further theoretical and empirical work on the dynamics of Europeanization.

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Section: Bringing Domestic Politics To the Forefrontmentioning

confidence: 99%

Europeanization Beyond the Goodness of Fit: Domestic Politics in the Forefront

2006

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“…Moreover, they are the ones who can use the EES strategically, that is, by legitimizing domestic reforms with policy ideas inspired by the EES guidelines. For instance, core executives have made explicit reference to EU policies to overcome domestic opposition to pension reform in Italy (Stiller, 2006) and in other social policy reforms in Southern and Eastern European countries (Kvist and Saari, 2007). Our argument adds to earlier evidence on the OMC's impact on the first phases of the national policy cycle, where it facilitates the inclusion of a policy item on the domestic agenda and/or reformulation of existing policies and institutions (Lopez-Santana, 2006: 482).…”

Section: Core Executives As Nexus Between Eu and Domestic Social Policy-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The European Employment Strategy and National Core Executives: Impacts on activation reforms in the Netherlands and Germany

Stiller

Gerven

2012

Journal of European Social Policy

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The European Employment Strategy (EES) has opened up new dynamics of Europeanization in the area of social policy. This article proposes to pay more attention to national core executives and their strategic use of the EES when considering its impact. Through core executives, the EES may not only affect domestic policy agendas, but also decision-making on reform. A comparative case study of activating employment policy reforms in the Netherlands and Germany evaluates expectations about how these agents upload and download ideas to and from the EU level. The findings indicate that uploading is facilitated by holding the EU presidency and a good fit with EES prescriptions, while downloading does not seem to depend on prior uploading and degree of fit but on other domestic factors. True strategic use of the EES by core executives following a sequence of uploading and downloading appears to be contingent on several contextual factors.

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Framing European Integration in Germany and Italy: Is the EU Used to Justify Pension Reforms?

Cited by 2 publications

References 16 publications

Europeanization Beyond the Goodness of Fit: Domestic Politics in the Forefront

Europeanization Beyond the Goodness of Fit: Domestic Politics in the Forefront

The European Employment Strategy and National Core Executives: Impacts on activation reforms in the Netherlands and Germany

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