Peer review of labour market programmes in the European Union. What can countries really learn from one another?

Titel	Peer review of labour market programmes in the European Union. What can countries really learn from one another? Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Peer Review von Arbeitsmarktprogrammen in der Europäischen Union. Was können Länder voneinander lernen?
Quelle	Aus: Busch, Klaus (Hrsg.): Wandel der Wohlfahrtsstaaten in Europa. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsges. (2008) S. 75-94Verfügbarkeit
Reihe	Schriften der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung zur europäischen Arbeits- und Sozialpolitik. 01
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; Sammelwerksbeitrag
ISBN	978-3-8329-3123-0
Schlagwörter	Beschäftigungspolitik; Konvergenz; Lernen; Politik; Europäische Integration; Aktionsplan; Europäische Union; Lernen; Konvergenz; Europäische Integration; Integrationspolitik; Politik; Beschäftigungspolitik; Aktionsplan; Best-Practice-Modell; Umsetzung; Institution; Europäische Union
Abstract	"Here, we analyse the diffusion of labour market programmes across the member states of the EU as a result of a peer review procedure explicitly designed to promote the transfer of 'good practice'. This peer review procedure provides an ideal setting to evaluate the application of the concepts and methods that can be drawn from the policy review literature. It also allows us to test the extent to which learning and/or transfer actually occurs. By defining the scope of the policy under review - as we do in the next section - it should be possible to track the degree to which use is made of the experiences of others and to which specific programmes or measures can be exported to another jurisdiction. Our focus is specifically with 'policy convergence' in the context of the European Employment Strategy (EES). We look for evidence as to whether its peer review procedure, by encouraging member states to learn more about the policy approaches and policy measures operating in other countries, has contributed to policy emulation or harmonization. We also look at whether it is typified by elite networking or by penetrative processes that involve external actors (Bennett 1991). Our analysis reveals major barriers that impede policy learning, let alone transfer. We argue that, to date, the peer review procedure has tended to be exclusive, involving a narrow 'epistemic community' (Haas 1992), and has had scarcely any impact upon either the Commission or the governments of the member states. Some of the reasons for this failure are explicable in terms of more general factors that impede organizational learning. Moreover, we show that the peer review procedure has barely, if at all, touched other actors foreseen as key to the workings of the EES - the social partners, civil society organizations and sub-national governments. Learning might take place, but it is ad hoc and often outside the formal, systematic process that the EES sought to establish. We conclude with some proposals for improvement." Forschungsmethode: deskriptive Studie. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum 1999 bis 2001. (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku).
Erfasst von	Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nürnberg
Update	2008/3