When Soft Law Overshadows other European Resources: Portuguese Reconciliation Policies and Usages of Europe

Sotirios Zartaloudis

doi:10.1177/138826271101300106

When Soft Law Overshadows other European Resources: Portuguese Reconciliation Policies and Usages of Europe

Sotirios Zartaloudis^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Political Science and International Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the analysis of the usages of Europe in Portuguese reconciliation policies presented in this article, we found a general concordance/temporal sequence between EU and national level developments. In an overall context of limited policy change induced by the EU, the main actors using EU resources were political entrepreneurs: firstly, ministerial elites, and secondly, high-level officials either in government or in the independent bodies for gender equality. These actors used primarily cognitive and financial resources: the European Employment Strategy (cognitive usage), and EU funds (strategic usage), whereas legal resources were not used. Finally, cognitive usage occurred in the beginning of the reform process (the EU was reform initiator) whereas strategic usage took place to support existing goals during the reform process (the EU was reform supporter).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	106-124
Number of pages	19
Journal	European Journal of Social Security
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/138826271101300106
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2011

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, London, UK; e-mail: [email protected]. The author is grateful to the task coordinators and members, two anonymous reviewers, and to Kevin Featherstone, Waltraud Schelkle, Christa Van Wijnebergen and Kyriakos Moumoutzis for their constructive comments, which improved this paper. Special thanks go to all Portuguese interviewees for providing their time and help, and the empirical evidence necessary for the completion of this research. All interviewees gave their permission for their views to be used in any academic outputs arising from the research. Funding from the Propontis Foundation, Bodossaki Foundation, LSE and RECWOWE is gratefully acknowledged. Any errors are the author’s responsibility.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2011 SAGE Publications.

Keywords

European Union
Portugal
reconciliation
usages of Europe

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Sociology and Political Science
Public Administration
Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1177/138826271101300106

Cite this

@article{21f30891b2ee4f758bc42d6e140d7368,

title = "When Soft Law Overshadows other European Resources: Portuguese Reconciliation Policies and Usages of Europe",

abstract = "In the analysis of the usages of Europe in Portuguese reconciliation policies presented in this article, we found a general concordance/temporal sequence between EU and national level developments. In an overall context of limited policy change induced by the EU, the main actors using EU resources were political entrepreneurs: firstly, ministerial elites, and secondly, high-level officials either in government or in the independent bodies for gender equality. These actors used primarily cognitive and financial resources: the European Employment Strategy (cognitive usage), and EU funds (strategic usage), whereas legal resources were not used. Finally, cognitive usage occurred in the beginning of the reform process (the EU was reform initiator) whereas strategic usage took place to support existing goals during the reform process (the EU was reform supporter).",

keywords = "European Union, Portugal, reconciliation, usages of Europe",

author = "Sotirios Zartaloudis",

note = "Funding Information: European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, London, UK; e-mail: [email protected]. The author is grateful to the task coordinators and members, two anonymous reviewers, and to Kevin Featherstone, Waltraud Schelkle, Christa Van Wijnebergen and Kyriakos Moumoutzis for their constructive comments, which improved this paper. Special thanks go to all Portuguese interviewees for providing their time and help, and the empirical evidence necessary for the completion of this research. All interviewees gave their permission for their views to be used in any academic outputs arising from the research. Funding from the Propontis Foundation, Bodossaki Foundation, LSE and RECWOWE is gratefully acknowledged. Any errors are the author{\textquoteright}s responsibility. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2011 SAGE Publications.",

year = "2011",

month = mar,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1177/138826271101300106",

language = "English",

volume = "13",

pages = "106--124",

journal = "European Journal of Social Security",

issn = "1388-2627",

publisher = "Intersentia",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - When Soft Law Overshadows other European Resources

T2 - Portuguese Reconciliation Policies and Usages of Europe

AU - Zartaloudis, Sotirios

N1 - Funding Information: European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, London, UK; e-mail: [email protected]. The author is grateful to the task coordinators and members, two anonymous reviewers, and to Kevin Featherstone, Waltraud Schelkle, Christa Van Wijnebergen and Kyriakos Moumoutzis for their constructive comments, which improved this paper. Special thanks go to all Portuguese interviewees for providing their time and help, and the empirical evidence necessary for the completion of this research. All interviewees gave their permission for their views to be used in any academic outputs arising from the research. Funding from the Propontis Foundation, Bodossaki Foundation, LSE and RECWOWE is gratefully acknowledged. Any errors are the author’s responsibility. Publisher Copyright: © 2011 SAGE Publications.

PY - 2011/3/1

Y1 - 2011/3/1

N2 - In the analysis of the usages of Europe in Portuguese reconciliation policies presented in this article, we found a general concordance/temporal sequence between EU and national level developments. In an overall context of limited policy change induced by the EU, the main actors using EU resources were political entrepreneurs: firstly, ministerial elites, and secondly, high-level officials either in government or in the independent bodies for gender equality. These actors used primarily cognitive and financial resources: the European Employment Strategy (cognitive usage), and EU funds (strategic usage), whereas legal resources were not used. Finally, cognitive usage occurred in the beginning of the reform process (the EU was reform initiator) whereas strategic usage took place to support existing goals during the reform process (the EU was reform supporter).

AB - In the analysis of the usages of Europe in Portuguese reconciliation policies presented in this article, we found a general concordance/temporal sequence between EU and national level developments. In an overall context of limited policy change induced by the EU, the main actors using EU resources were political entrepreneurs: firstly, ministerial elites, and secondly, high-level officials either in government or in the independent bodies for gender equality. These actors used primarily cognitive and financial resources: the European Employment Strategy (cognitive usage), and EU funds (strategic usage), whereas legal resources were not used. Finally, cognitive usage occurred in the beginning of the reform process (the EU was reform initiator) whereas strategic usage took place to support existing goals during the reform process (the EU was reform supporter).

KW - European Union

KW - Portugal

KW - reconciliation

KW - usages of Europe

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84903767579&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/138826271101300106

DO - 10.1177/138826271101300106

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84903767579

SN - 1388-2627

VL - 13

SP - 106

EP - 124

JO - European Journal of Social Security

JF - European Journal of Social Security

IS - 1

ER -

When Soft Law Overshadows other European Resources: Portuguese Reconciliation Policies and Usages of Europe

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this