Social Pacts in Europe: Emergence, Evolution, and Institutionalization

The result of a four-year long comparative research study centered at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and financed by the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme, Social Pacts in Europe presents the first full-length theoretical and comparative empirical study of new social pacts in Europe. Its aim is to bring the level of sophistication achieved in an earlier literature on neo-corporatism to the more contemporary phenomenon of 'social pacting'. The book brings a wide range of complementary theories to bear on the emergence, evolution and institutionalization of pacts, compares systematically a wide range of cases across Europe, and provides in-depth studies of Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and Slovenia. The book contributes to the scholarly debate on economic adjustment and institutional change in European capitalism by focusing on three inter-related questions: (i) what explains national variation in reliance on social pacts; (ii) what determines the outcomes of individual pact negotiations; and (iii) under what conditions are pacts repeated and become regular features of socio-economic governance? The book's theoretical innovations include a novel application of fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs/QCA) to help explain national differences in social pact adoption; the application of a game theoretic approach to explain social pact emergence; and a reinterpretation of traditional neo-corporatist and new institutionalist theory to help understand social pact consolidation and institutionalization. Contributors to this volume - Maura Adshead BA, MA (Limerick), PhD (Liverpool) is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Public Administration and Head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick. Sabina Avdagic is a Research Councils UK Academic Fellow at the University of Sussex. Sabrina Colombo is Assistant Professor in Economic Sociology at the University of Milano, where she teaches Methodology of Social Research. Alenka Krasovec is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Maria da Paz Campos Lima is auxiliary professor at the Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE-IUL) and a senior researcher at the research centre DINAMIA-CET. Oscar Molina Romo lectures at the Institut d'Estudis del Treball (Institute for Labour Studies), at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Reinhard Naumann is a member of the research centre DINAMIA-CET at the Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE-IUL). Rory O'Donnell is Director of Ireland's National Economic and Social Council (NESC). Marino Regini is Professor of Economic Sociology and Vice-Rector of the University of Milan. Martin Rhodes is a Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, Colorado. Miroslav Stanojevi is Professor of Industrial Relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. Damian Thomas is Senior Policy Analyst at the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), Dublin, Ireland. Marc Van der Meer is director of the national Centre for Expertise on Vocational Training and Education (ECBO), where he is responsible for developing a public knowledge infrastructure for VET-policies in schools and companies. Jelle Visser is Professor of Empirical Sociology and Chair of the Sociology of Labour and Organization at the University of Amsterdam.