Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:24:21.212Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Polanyi in Brussels: Supranational Institutions and the Transnational Embedding of Markets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

James A. Caporaso
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle. E-mail: caporaso@u.washington.edu
Sidney Tarrow
Affiliation:
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. E-mail: sgt2@cornell.edu
Get access

Abstract

Many have argued that the success of European integration is predicated on reinforcing market structures and some have gone further to state that the creation of a transnational market results in a decoupling of markets from their national political and social frameworks, thus threatening to unravel historical social bargains. Drawing on the work of Karl Polanyi and John Ruggie and using their insights regarding the social embedding of markets, we dissent from this view by examining how the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has handled a key sector of the emerging European market—labor mobility. We argue that rather than disembedding markets, decisions of the ECJ—just as Polanyi and Ruggie would have predicted—activate new social and political arrangements. We find evidence for the development of a new legal and political structure, largely inspired by the Court but also imbricated in European Union legislation, at the regional level.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abdelal, Rawi. 2007. Capital Rules: The Construction of Global Finance. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Abdelal, Rawi, and Meunier, Sophie. 2007. The Paradox of Managed Globalization. Paper presented at the Conference on Europe and the Management of Globalization, February, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University.Google Scholar
Adserà, Alícia, and Boix, Carles. 2002. Trade, Democracy, and Size of the Public Sector: The Political Underpinnings of Openness. International Organization 56 (2):229–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alter, Karen J. 1996. The European Court's Political Power: The Emergence of an Authoritative International Court in the European Union. West European Politics 19 (3):458–87.Google Scholar
Alter, Karen J. 2009. The European Court's Political Power: Selected Essays. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, Carlos. 1996. The Making of a Transnational Capitalist Society: The Court of Justice, Social Policy, and Individual Rights Under the Community's Legal Order. Harvard International Law Journal 37 (2):307–88.Google Scholar
Bartolini, Stefano. 2005. Restructuring Europe: Centre Formation, System Building, and Political Structuring Between the Nation State and the European Union. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Steven, and Pauly, Louis W.. 2007. Global Liberalism and Political Order: Towards a New Grand Compromise. Albany: State University of New York Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Block, Fred. 2003. Karl Polanyi and the Writing of The Great Transformation. Theory and Society 32 (3):275306.Google Scholar
Block, Fred. 2007. Understanding the Diverging Trajectories of the United States and Western Europe: A Neo-Polanyian Analysis. Politics and Society 35 (1):333.Google Scholar
Bohle, Dorothee, and Greskovits, Béla. 2007. Neoliberalism, Embedded Neoliberalism and Neocorporatism: Towards Transnational Capitalism in Central-Eastern Europe. West European Politics 30 (3):443–66.Google Scholar
Bronzino v. Kindergeldkasse. Case C-228/1988. European Court Reports, 1990.Google Scholar
Cerny, Philip G. 2008. Embedding Neoliberalism: The Evolution of a Hegemonic Paradigm. Journal of International Trade and Diplomacy 2 (1):146.Google Scholar
Cichowski, Rachel A. 2001. Judicial Rulemaking and the Institutionalization of European Union Sex Equality Policy. In The Institutionalization of Europe, edited by Sweet, Alec Stone, Sandholtz, Wayne, and Fligstein, Neil, 113–36. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cichowski, Rachel A. 2007. The European Court and Civil Society. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Commission v. Italy. Case 63/1986. European Court Reports, 1988.Google Scholar
Conant, Lisa. 2002. Justice Contained: Law and Politics in the European Union. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Cornelissen, Rob. 1996. The Principle of Territoriality and the Community Regulations on Social Policy. Common Market Law Review 33 (2):439–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan v. Tresor Public. Case 186/1987. European Court Reports, 1989.Google Scholar
De Burca, Grainne. 2003. The European Court of Justice and the Evolution of EU Law. In The State of the European Union, Vol. 6, edited by Boerzel, Tanja A. and Cichowski, Rachel A., 4875. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Della Porta, Donatella, and Diani, Mario. 2006. Social Movements: An Introduction. 2d ed.Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dobbin, Frank. 2004. Introduction: The Sociology of the Economy. In The Sociology of the Economy, edited by Dobbin, Frank, 125. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Eberlein, Burkard, and Grande, Edgar. 2005. Reconstituting Political Authority in Europe: Transnational Regulatory Networks and the Informalization of Governance in the European Union. In Complex Sovereignty: Reconstituting Political Authority in the Twenty-first Century, edited by Grande, Edgar and Pauly, Louis W., 146–67. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Egan, Michelle P. 2001. Constructing a European Market: Standards, Regulations, and Governance. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epp, Charles R. 1998. The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faist, Thomas. 2001. Social Citizenship in the European Union: Nested Membership. Journal of Common Market Studies 39 (1):3758.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falkner, Gerda. 1998. EU Social Policy in the 1990s: Toward a Corporatist Policy Community. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Falkner, Gerda, Treib, Oliver, Hartlaap, Miriam, and Leiber, Simone. 2005. Complying With Europe: EU Harmonization and Soft Law in the Member States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrera, Maurizio. 2003. European Integration and National Social Citizenship: Changing Boundaries, New Structuring? Comparative Political Studies 36 (6):611–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrera, Maurizio, Hemmerijck, Anton, and Rhodes, Martin. 2000. The Future of Social Europe: Recasting Work and Welfare in the New Economy. Report prepared for the Portuguese Presidency of the EU. Oeiras, Portugal: Celta Editoria.Google Scholar
Fligstein, Neil. 2001a. The Architecture of Markets: An Economic Sociology of Twenty First Century Capitalist Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fligstein, Neil. 2001b. Institutional Entrepreneurs and Cultural Frames: The Case of the European Union's Single Market Program. European Societies 3 (3):261–87.Google Scholar
Frank, Robert H. 1992. Melding Sociology and Economics: James Coleman's Foundations of Social Theory. Journal of Economic Literature 30 (1):147–70.Google Scholar
Garrett, Geoffrey, and Lange, Peter. 1991. Political Responses to Interdependence: What's ‘Left’ for the Left? International Organization 45 (4):539–64.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Judith L., Kahler, Miles, Keohane, Robert O., and Slaughter, Anne-Marie, eds. 2000. Legalization and World Politics. Special issue of International Organization 54 (3). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Greven, Michael Th. 2000. Can the European Union Finally Become a Democracy? In Democracy Beyond the State? The European Dilemma and the Emerging Global Order, edited by Greven, Michael Th. and Pauly, Louis W., 3561. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Hine, David, and Kassim, Hussein. 1998. Beyond the Market: The EU and National Social Policy. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hooghe, Liesbet. 2005. Several Roads Lead to International Norms, but Few Via International Socialization: A Case Study of the European Commission. International Organization 59 (4):861–98.Google Scholar
Hooghe, Liesbet, and Marks, Gary. 2001. Multi-Level Governance and European Integration. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
International Organization. 2005. Special Issue: International Institutions and Socialization in Europe. 59 (4).Google Scholar
Jabko, Nicholas. 2006. Playing the Market: A Political Strategy for Uniting Europe, 1985–2005. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Joel Noel Royer. Case 48/1975. European Court Reports, 1976.Google Scholar
Jupille, Joseph, and Caporaso, James A.. 2008. Domesticating Discourses: European Law, English Judges, and Political Institutions. European Political Science Review 1 (2):205–28.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J. 2005. A World of Regions: Europe and Asia in the American Imperium. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kelemen, R. Daniel. 2003. The EU Rights Revolution: Adversarial Legalism and European Integration. In The State of the EU. Vol. 6, Law, Politics, and Society, edited by Börzel, Tanja and Cichowski, Rachel, 221–34. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelemen, R. Daniel. 2006. Suing for Europe: Adversarial Legalism and European Governance. Comparative Political Studies 39 (1):101–27.Google Scholar
Kelemen, R. Daniel, and Sibbitt, Eric C.. 2004. The Globalization of American Law. International Organization 58 (1):103–36.Google Scholar
Lang, Andrew T. F. 2008. Reconstructing Embedded Liberalism: John Gerard Ruggie and Constructivist Approaches to the Study of the International Trade Regime. In Embedding Global Markets: An Enduring Challenge, edited by Ruggie, John Gerard, 1345. Burlington Vt.: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Leibfried, Stephan, and Pierson, Paul. 1995a. European Social Policy: Between Fragmentation and Integration. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Leibfried, Stephan, and Pierson, Paul. 1995b. Semisovereign Welfare States: Social Policy in a Multitiered Europe. In European Social Policy: Between Fragmentation and Integration, edited by Leibfried, Stephan and Pierson, Paul, 4377. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Levin v. Staatssecretaris van Justitie. Case 53/1981. European Court Reports, 1982.Google Scholar
Mabbett, Deborah. 2005. The Development of Rights–Based Social Policy in the E.U.: The Example of Disability Rights. Journal of Common Market Studies 43 (1):97120.Google Scholar
Majone, Giandomenico. 1993. The European Community Between Social Policy and Social Regulation. Journal of Common Market Studies 31 (2):153–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Majone, Giandomenico. 2006. The Common Sense of European Integration. Journal of European Public Policy 13 (5):607–26.Google Scholar
Mary Carpenter v. Secretary of State for the Home Department. Case C-60/2000. European Court Reports, 2002.Google Scholar
McMichael, Philip. 2005. Globalization. In Handbook of Political Sociology: States, Civil Societies, and Globalization, edited by Janoski, Thomas, Alford, Robert R., Hicks, Alexander M., and Schwartz, Mildred A., 587606. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mosley, Layna. 2000. Room to Move: International Financial Markets and National Welfare States. International Organization 54 (4):737–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palier, Bruno, and Pochet, Philippe. 2005. Toward a European Social Policy—At Last? In The State of the European Union. Vol. 7, With US or Against US? European Trends in American Perspective, edited by Jabko, Nicholas and Parsons, Craig, 253–73. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pauly, Louis W., and Grande, Edgar. 2005. Reconstituting Political Authority: Sovereignty, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy in a Transnational Order. In Complex Sovereignty: Reconstituting Political Authority in the Twenty-first Century, 321. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Polanyi, Karl. 2001 [1944]. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Regulation (EEC) No. 1408/71 of the Council of 14 June 1971 on the Application of Social Security Schemes to Employed Persons and Their Families. Official Journal. Brussels, Belgium: Publications of the European Economic Commun.Google Scholar
Rhodes, Martin. 1995. A Regulatory Conundrum: Industrial Relations and the Social Dimension. In European Social Policy: Between Fragmentation and Integration, edited by Leibfried, Stephan and Pierson, Paul, 78122. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Rhodes, Martin. 1998. Defending the Social Contract: The EU Between Global Constraints and Domestic Imperatives. In Beyond the Market: The EU and National Social Policy, edited by Hine, David and Kassim, Hussein, 3659. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rodrik, Dani. 1997. Has Globalization Gone Too Far? Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John G. 1982. International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Post-War Economic Order. International Organization 36 (2):379415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John G. 2007. Global Markets and Global Governance: The Prospects for Convergence. In Global Liberalism and Political Order: Towards a New Grand Compromise?, edited by Bernstein, Steven and Pauly, Louis W., 2348. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Ruggie, John G. 2008a. Embedding Global Markets: An Enduring Challenge. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Ruggie, John G. 2008b. Introduction: Embedding Global Markets. In Embedding Global Markets: An Enduring Challenge, edited by Ruggie, John Gerard, 112. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Scharpf, Fritz W. 1997. Economic Integration, Democracy, and the Welfare State. Journal of European Public Policy 4 (1):1836.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scharpf, Fritz W. 1999. Governing in Europe: Effective and Democratic? Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scharpf, Fritz W., and Schmidt, Vivien A.. 2000. Welfare and Work in the Open Economy. Vol. 1, From Vulnerability to Competitiveness. Vol. 2, Diverse Responses to Common Challenges in Twelve Countries. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schimmelfennig, Frank. 2005. Strategic Calculation and International Socialization: Membership Incentives, Party Constellations, and Sustained Compliance in Central and Eastern Europe. International Organization 59 (4):827–60.Google Scholar
S.E. Klaus v. Besturr van de Nieuwe Algemene Bedrijfsvereniging. Case 482/1993. European Court Reports, 1995.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Martin. 2002. Toward a Theory of Stare Decisis. In On Law, Politics,& Judicialization, edited by Shapiro, Martin and Sweet, Alec Stone, 102–35. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Martin. 2005. Rights in the European Union: Convergent with the USA? In The State of the European Union. Vol. 7, With US or Against US? European Trends in American Perspective, edited by Jabko, Nicholas and Parsons, Craig, 371–90. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Slaughter, Anne-Marie, and Burke-White, William W.. 2006. The Future of International Law Is Domestic (or, The European Way of Law). Harvard International Law Journal 47 (2):327–52.Google Scholar
Stone Sweet, Alec. 1998. Rules, Dispute Resolution, and Strategic Behavior: Reply to Vanberg. Journal of Theoretical Politics 10 (3):327–38.Google Scholar
Stone Sweet, Alec. 1999. Judicialization and the Construction of Governance. Comparative Political Studies 32 (2):147–84.Google Scholar
Stone Sweet, Alec. 2000. Governing with Judges: Constitutional Politics in Europe. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stone Sweet, Alec. 2002. Islands of Transnational Governance. In On Law, Politics, & Judicialization, edited by Shapiro, Martin and Sweet, Alec Stone, 323–42. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stone Sweet, Alec, and Sandholtz, Wayne. 1998. Integration, Supranational Governance, and the Institutionalization of the European Polity. In European Integration and Supranational Governance, edited by Sandholtz, Wayne and Sweet, Alec Stone, 126. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Streeck, Wolfgang. 1995a. From Market Making to State Building? Reflections on the Political Economy of European Social Policy. In European Social Policy: Between Fragmentation and Integration, edited by Leibfried, Stephan and Pierson, Paul, 389431. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Streeck, Wolfgang. 1995b. Neo-Voluntarism: A New European Social Policy Regime. European Law Journal 1 (1):3159.Google Scholar
Streeck, Wolfgang, and Schmitter, Philippe C.. 1991. From National Corporatism to Transnational Pluralism: Organized Interests in the Single Market. Politics and Society 19 (2):133–64.Google Scholar
Swedberg, Richard. 2003. Principles of Economic Sociology. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney. 2005. The New Transnational Activism. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles, and Tarrow, Sidney. 2007. Contentious Politics. Boulder, Colo.: Paradigm.Google Scholar
Van Apeldoorn, Bastiaan. 2002. Transnational Capitalism and the Struggle over European Integration. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Van Apeldoorn, Bastiaan. 2008. The Contradictions of ‘Embedded Neoliberalism’ and Europe's Multilevel Legitimacy Crisis: The European Project and Its Limits. In Contradictions and Limits of Neoliberal European Governance: From Lisbon to Lisbon, edited by van Apeldoorn, Bastiaan, Drahokoupil, Jan, and Horn, Laura, 2143. London: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Van Gend en Loos v. Administratie der Belastingen. Case 26/1962. European Court Reports, 1963.Google Scholar
Vogel, Steven Kent. 1996. Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Walras, Léon. 1954. Elements of Pure Economics, or the Theory of Social Wealth. Trans. Jaffé, by William. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Weiler, Joseph H. H. 1994. A Quiet Revolution: The European Court of Justice and Its Interlocutors. Comparative Political Studies 26 (4):510–34.Google Scholar
Weiler, Joseph H. H., and Lockhart, Nicholas J. S.. 1995. ‘Taking Rights Seriously’: The European Court and its Fundamental Rights Jurisprudence—Part II. Common Market Law Review 32:579–98.Google Scholar