IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v60y2022i6p1629-1644.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Juncker Commission as a Politicising Bricoleur and the Renewed Momentum in Social Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Copeland

Abstract

This article analyses the Juncker Commission's strategy to revitalize the legislative aspects of social Europe. Given the inherent obstacles to forging agreements in the field the Commission was required to operationalize a strategy of being a politicalising bricoleur: a bricoleur in the sense it revisited and revised existing tools with the aim of generating change and building an integration moment in social Europe; politicizing in the sense that the Commission exercised social acuity, built broad teams to mobilize for change, and deployed a distinctive discursive strategy. The analysis finds that the Commission had some success, but continued obstacles resulted in reforms being focused on revisions to relatively non‐contentious policies rather than new legislative agreements. The analysis draws attention to the creativity of Commission agency and the constraints within which it operates.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Copeland, 2022. "The Juncker Commission as a Politicising Bricoleur and the Renewed Momentum in Social Europe," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(6), pages 1629-1644, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:60:y:2022:i:6:p:1629-1644
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13336
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13336
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13336?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Copeland & Mary Daly, 2018. "The European Semester and EU Social Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(5), pages 1001-1018, July.
    2. Amandine Crespy & Georg Menz, 2015. "Commission Entrepreneurship and the Debasing of Social Europe Before and After the Eurocrisis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 753-768, July.
    3. Beatrice Carella & Paolo Graziano, 2022. "Back to the Future in EU Social Policy? Endogenous Critical Junctures and the Case of the European Pillar of Social Rights," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 374-390, March.
    4. Daniel Seikel, 2016. "Flexible Austerity and Supranational Autonomy. The Reformed Excessive Deficit Procedure and the Asymmetry between Liberalization and Social Regulation in the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(6), pages 1398-1416, November.
    5. Hooghe, Liesbet & Marks, Gary, 2009. "A Postfunctionalist Theory of European Integration: From Permissive Consensus to Constraining Dissensus," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 1-23, January.
    6. Tulia G. Falleti, 2016. "Process tracing of extensive and intensive processes," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5), pages 455-462, September.
    7. Crouch, Colin, 2005. "Capitalist Diversity and Change: Recombinant Governance and Institutional Entrepreneurs," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199286652.
    8. Amandine Crespy & Georg Menz, 2015. "Commission Entrepreneurship and the Debasing of Social Europe Before and After the Eurocrisis," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/205514, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paul Copeland, 2023. "Poverty and social exclusion in the EU: third-order priorities, hybrid governance and the future potential of the field," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(2), pages 219-233, May.
    2. Fredrik von Malmborg, 2024. "Strategies and Impacts of Policy Entrepreneurs: Ideology, Democracy, and the Quest for a Just Transition to Climate Neutrality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-51, June.
    3. Maarten Keune & Philippe Pochet, 2023. "The revival of Social Europe: is this time different?," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(2), pages 173-183, May.
    4. Jan Czarzasty, 2024. "20 years after. Changing perspectives on industrial relations in Central and Eastern Europe two decades after EU enlargement: from transition to transformation," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 30(1), pages 15-31, February.
    5. Arnaud Lechevalier, 2024. "L’Europe sociale par-delà le « Socle européen des Droits sociaux »," Post-Print hal-04639348, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beatrice Carella & Paolo Graziano, 2022. "Back to the Future in EU Social Policy? Endogenous Critical Junctures and the Case of the European Pillar of Social Rights," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 374-390, March.
    2. Guglielmo Meardi, 2018. "Economic Integration and State Responses: Change in European Industrial Relations since Maastricht," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 631-655, September.
    3. Mikkel Mailand, 2021. "Commission entrepreneurship and EU employment policy – The fate of a former darling," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 27(3), pages 249-267, September.
    4. Javier Bilbao-Ubillos, 2023. "The Social Dimension of the European Union: A Means to lock out Social Competition?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 267-281, January.
    5. Anna Elomäki & Johanna Kantola, 2020. "European Social Partners as Gender Equality Actors in EU Social and Economic Governance," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 999-1015, July.
    6. Sandrino Smeets & Alenka Jaschke & Derek Beach, 2019. "The Role of the EU Institutions in Establishing the European Stability Mechanism: Institutional Leadership under a Veil of Intergovernmentalism," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 675-691, July.
    7. Alberto Arenal & Claudio Feijoo & Ana Moreno & Sergio Ramos & Cristina Armuña, 2021. "Entrepreneurship Policy Agenda in the European Union: A Text Mining Perspective," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(2), pages 243-271, March.
    8. Ana Paula Brandão & Isabel Camisão, 2022. "Playing the Market Card: The Commission's Strategy to Shape EU Cybersecurity Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(5), pages 1335-1355, September.
    9. Bernhard Zeilinger, 2021. "The European Commission as a Policy Entrepreneur under the European Semester," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 63-73.
    10. Volintiru Mihai, 2018. "The internalization context of private health service providers in Europe: Romanian market case study," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 1038-1047, May.
    11. Reinout A van der Veer & Markus Haverland, 2018. "Bread and butter or bread and circuses? Politicisation and the European Commission in the European Semester," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(3), pages 524-545, September.
    12. Muireann O'Dwyer, 2022. "Gender and Crises in European Economic Governance: Is this Time Different?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 152-169, January.
    13. John Peterson, 2017. "Juncker's political European Commission and an EU in crisis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 349-367, March.
    14. Valentin Marian Antohi & Romeo Victor Ionescu & Marius Sorin Dinca & Monica Laura Zlati & Costinela Fortea, 2023. "Dynamics of the Social Security Index in the Context of the Economic Crisis in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    15. Reinout Arthur van der Veer, 2022. "Walking the Tightrope: Politicization and the Commission's Enforcement of the SGP," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 81-100, January.
    16. Paul Copeland, 2023. "Poverty and social exclusion in the EU: third-order priorities, hybrid governance and the future potential of the field," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(2), pages 219-233, May.
    17. Paul Copeland, 2019. "Why Brexit Will Do Little to Change the Political Contours of the European Social Dimension," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 30-39.
    18. Julian Aichholzer & Sylvia Kritzinger & Carolina Plescia, 2021. "National identity profiles and support for the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(2), pages 293-315, June.
    19. Marco Manacorda & Guido Tabellini & Andrea Tesei, 2022. "Mobile internet and the rise of political tribalism in Europe," CEP Discussion Papers dp1877, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Luuk Middelaar, 2016. "The Return of Politics – The European Union after the crises in the eurozone and Ukraine," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 495-507, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:60:y:2022:i:6:p:1629-1644. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.