Work yet welfare

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• Department of Political and Social Sciences

Join Robin Huguenot-Noël, PhD researcher at the SPS Department, as he discusses his research at the final session of the Political Economy Working Group.

Macroeconomic policy in the EU recently observed a reappraisal of welfare provisions. To explain this Gestalt-switch, a widespread view holds that a cognitive shift occurred among fiscal policymakers. Tensions underlying such change of heart have received limited attention. During this seminar, PhD researcher Robin Huguenot-Noël will presenting his latest research, answering to the following question: when do social elites succeed in manufacturing consent for macroeconomic policies that advance social rights? 

The first part of the study addresses the distributive profile of all EU labour market policies adopted between 1999 and 2023, while the second part moves to the political economy of this change, drawing lessons on the ‘pathways to EU macrosocialisation’. The analysis shows that policy and polity tensions are limited when the EU acts as an agenda-setter or as a supporter of national welfare states’ efforts to enhance their own capacitation and insurance objectives. Conversely, EU action as a direct provider of social rights, particularly in areas involving redistribution, is more contentious. 

The research further reveals three conditions to achieve macrosocialisation. While in low-conflict areas, instillation dynamics are needed to help convince economic elites that macrosocialisation is in their own interests, in high-conflict areas, irradiation techniques, aimed at circumventing veto-players by means of popular mobilisation, seem to constitute a more effective strategy.