Paper Title:  
Socio-economic Convergence in the European Union in the context of differences across policy domains and the power relations within and between European Institutions

The concept of convergence has a long history in policy analysis although the focus on it in social policy debates has varied over time from prominence in the 1970s to relative inattention in the 1990s.   The recent interest in convergence is linked to debates on globalization and stems from sources with diverse theoretical, ideological and disciplinary backgrounds.   The first part of the paper outlines these and discusses the conceptualization and measurement of convergence.    It considers the reasons for the renewed interest in convergence in the context of increasing recognition of diversity in social policy regimes and distinguishes between convergence as an outcome, a policy objective and an ideational influence on policy processes.    The second part of the paper focuses on the European Union and considers how the concept of convergence articulated in EU documents dovetails, or not, with those in the wider debate on convergence.  In considering the advocacy of convergence in economic, employment and social outcomes in Council and Commission documents it explores the implications of the power relations within and between European institutions for the balance between economic performance objectives and social policy objectives.   This is situated in the context of   the statement, by the High Level Group on the future of social policy in the enlarged European Union, that getting the relation between economic performance and social policy right ‘is the key to the future prosperity and well being of the European Union’ (European Commission Directorate-General Employment and Social Affairs 2004: 58).    The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the analysis for conceptualizing welfare state change in the context of regime diversity and supra-national influences. 

Julia S.O’Connor
Professor of Social Policy
School of Policy Studies
University of Ulster
Derry-Londonderry
Northern Ireland
BT48 7PF

Tel: 0044 28 7137 5657
email: js.oconnor@ulster.ac.uk