Pouvoir normatif et protection sociale dans les fédérations multinationales

Abstract

In multinational polities, different orders of government are involved in determining the norms of social protection. In this context, this article addresses the question of who does what, how and why. The first section deals with the distribution of normative power concerning social protection in federal states and in the European Union. The second section examines a variety of devices enabling the articulation of shared power. Finally, a third section concentrates on the different functions of normative power in the social domain. The first one is obviously redistributive. Secondly, the exercise of normative power legitimises public institutions of all government levels involved. The third function, which is of particular interest in the context of multinational States (or political spaces such as Europe) consists in the consolidation of citizenship. The solidarity inherent in norms of social protection reflects the sense of belonging to a particular social group, and in this context, the nation. It can also serve to strengthen the sense of belonging to the larger political space, the multinational federation. In complex political structures, the power to establish norms of social protection contributes to the phenomenon of multiple loyalties and overlapping citizenship. Cementing citizenship in such a political context cannot succeed through homogenisation, but must respect the cultural dimension of social protection and the right to be different.

How Does Decentralisation Affect the Welfare State? Territorial Politics and the Welfare State in the UK and US

“…But it can be useful to go a step further down for some more specific variables: laws and money (Banting and Corbett, 2002;Greer, 2006). First, regions can be legally constrained (Poirier, 2001). Basic laws such as those found in Germany and Spain, for example, require certain standards and even procedures of the regional governments.…”