Co-opting the European Social Model: The Evolving Discourse over the "Common Principles" of Flexicurity.

This paper examines the competing discourses being promoted to frame the debate over social policy in the EU and the impact that this debate is having on the implementation of the flexicurity policy model. First, this paper examines how ideational power is used by competing social forces to construct and support a hegemonic order. By examining how the discourse of competitiveness has been constructed to foster discourse of fear, this paper details how this framework has engendered a policy environment that maintains the member-states must restructure their economies to remain competitive and attractive to transnational business. In addition, the paper traces the four interrelated policy discourses used to frame the debate over the harmonization of social policy within the EU and how this broader context has shaped the implementation of flexicurity. Finally, the paper analyses how the 'common pathways' approach to flexicurity acts to reinforce neo-liberal hegemony in the EU by embedding it within 'depoliticalising' discourse of pragmatic problem-solving. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]