Simone Leiber

Non-Compliance with EU Directives in the Member States: Opposition through the Backdoor?

To what extent are European rules complied with, and what are the reasons for non-compliance with EU law? According to an intergovernmentalist perspective, implementation problems should occur when member states failed to assert their interests in the European decision-making process. Focusing on 26 infringement procedures from the area of labour law, we show that such ‘opposition through the backdoor’ does occur occasionally. However, we demonstrate that opposition at the end of the EU policy process may also arise without prior opposition at the beginning. Additionally, our findings indicate that non-compliance is often unrelated to opposition, and due to administrative shortcomings, interpretation problems, and issue linkage. This study is based on unique in-depth data stemming from a ground-level analysis of the implementation of six EU Directives in all 15 member states.

Europeanization of Social Partnership in Smaller European Democracies

This article examines the impact of Europeanization on cooperation between major interest groups and the state in national policymaking. Its theoretical innovation centres on two issues: (1) a classification of cooperation by management, labour, and the state in public policy-making and (2) a differentiation of levels of Europeanization in the Member States. The empirical material highlights the implementation of six EU Directives in four smaller states: Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Sweden. A moderate trend towards convergence is discovered, caused mainly by forced adaptation of the most extreme model of corporatism.

The implementation of EU social policy: the ‘Southern Problem’ revisited

This article analyses the implementation of EU social policy in the Southern European member states. When studied by implementation research, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain are often treated as a homogeneous group, and some authors speak of a particular ‘Southern Problem’ while others contest this. In this article, we will take issue with central explanatory frameworks of this literature – the existence of a high level of policy misfit, inefficient administrative and political systems, and weak non-state actors and civil societies in Southern Europe. We analyse the effects of these factors on the timeliness and correctness of implementation in the area of social policy. In a first step, we show that images of a homogenous ‘Southern laggard group’ are indeed inappropriate. In a second step, we present a new explanation of why the Southern countries are not as uniform as often supposed: they belong to different ‘worlds of compliance’.

Health Care System Change and the Cross-Border Transfer of Ideas: Influence of the Dutch Model on the 2007 German Health Reform

To increase understanding of the cross-border transfer of ideas through a case study of the 2007 German health reform, this article draws on Kingdons approach of streams and follows two main objectives: first, to understand the extent to which the German health reform was actually influenced by the Dutch model and, second, in theoretical terms, to inform inductively on how ideas from abroad enter government agendas. The results show that the streams of problem recognition and policy proposals have not been predominantly influenced by the cross-border transfer of ideas from the Netherlands to Germany. The Dutch experience was taken into consideration only after a policy window opened by a shift in politics in the third, the political, stream: the change of government in 2005. In many respects, the way Germany learned from the Netherlands in this case sharply contrasts with an image of solving policy problems by either lesson drawing or transnational deliberation. Instead, the process was dominated by problem solving in the sphere of politics, that is, finding a way to prove the grand coalition was capable of acting.

Trotz Pflege kein Vereinbarkeitsproblem? Typische Arrangements und Ressourcen erwerbstätiger pflegender Söhne

Abstract We carried out comparative case studies in eleven German companies and conducted interviews with male employees caring for an elderly parent. The overwhelming majority of the sons claim not to have problems in reconciling work and care, although they spend significant time at care work. In the paper we try to explain this pattern by looking at their typical work and care arrangements. We show that male care is organized all around full time employment.

Vereinbarkeit von Wettbewerb und Solidarität in der sozialen Krankenversicherung? Gesundheitsreformen in den Niederlanden und Deutschland

Lander, deren soziale Sicherungssysteme auf dem Sozialversicherungsprinzip beruhen, wurden lange Zeit als resistent gegen weit reichende Strukturreformen angesehen. Insbesondere seit Anfang 2000 beobachten wir jedoch auch in diesen Landern verstarkte Reformaktivitaten (Palier 2006; Palier/Martin 2007). Fur den Bereich Gesundheitspolitik sind die Niederlande und Deutschland dabei besonders interessante Falle. Beide Gesundheitssysteme lassen sich historisch dem Modell „soziale Krankenversicherung“1 zuordnen.2 Traditionell ist darin das Solidarprinzip stark verankert, da sich die Beitrage zur sozialen Krankenversicherung prinzipiell an der finanziellen Leistungsfahigkeit, die Gesundheitsdienstleitungen jedoch am Bedarf der Versicherten orientieren. Aber es gibt in den Systemen mit sozialer Krankenversicherung auch jeweils unterschiedliche, historisch gewachsene Bruchstellen mit dem Solidarprinzip (z.B. Versicherungspflichtgrenzen, die bestimmte Berufsoder Einkommensgruppen von der Versicherungspflicht ausnehmen; Beitragsbemessungsgrenzen). Anders als etwa in Osterreich (Talos/Obinger 2006) oder Frankreich (Hassenteufel/Palier 2007), die ebenfalls zu den Landern mit sozialer Krankenversicherung zahlen, wurde in Deutschland und den Niederlanden in jungeren Reformprozessen stark auf Wettbewerbselemente gesetzt.3 In beiden Landern fanden in den letzten Jahren zudem Gesundheitsreformen statt, die mit wichtigen Prinzipien im System der sozialen Krankenversicherung brachen (Leiber 2006; 2007, vgl. auch Abschnitt 3).

Die Rolle der Kommunen in der Pflegepolitik

Abstract Ideally, preventive social policy measures do not only target children or young adults but complement the whole live course. In a first step, this article develops a conception of preventive care policy addressing (older) persons in need of care as well as their caregivers in Germany. In a second step, the role of municipalities – recently subject to political reform at the federal level – in supporting such a preventive approach to care provision is discussed. On the basis of a literature and social legislation review as well as expert interviews the authors point out that realigning local care policies in a preventive way is conditional on the transfer of steady resources from the federal and state governments to the level of municipalities.