CONSENSUS

Confronting Social and Environmental Sustainability with Economic Pressure: Balancing Trade-offs by Policy Dismantling?

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'CONSENSUS aims to improve our understanding of trade-offs and synergies between economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainable development. In so doing, the project applies a selective focus in order to shed light on several issues that are of particular relevance in this respect – both in practical and analytical terms. First, the project places particular emphasis on a systematic analysis of the interlinkage between different levels of economic pressure and social and environmental policy. Second, in line with the political emphasis on better regulation and deregulation, the project applies a highly innovative perspective on policy change and sustainable development. Third, this interlinkage between economic pressure on the one side, and environmental and social sustainability on the other, is analyzed on the basis of a systematic comparison across 25 OECD countries over a period of thirty years (1975-2005) Fourth, this focus offers the opportunity for a comparison of regulatory adjustments across different policy areas. The focus on two 'crucial' policy fields – social and environmental policy – allows us to study whether regulatory responses to economic pressures differ between these areas. Fifth, with regard to environmental and social policy, we focus on those subfields that have been identified as priority areas of sustainable development The projects proceeds in the following steps. In the first step, the theoretical framework will be further elaborated. In the second step, a quantitative analysis of the major driving forces of policy dismantling will be acrried out. For this purpose, cross-national data on social and environmental policy dismantling for the period from 1975 to 2005 will be collected. In the third part of the study, theoretiaccly interesting cases will be selected and subject to an in-depth qualitative analysis. The final part refers to the publication of the research reprot and the dissemination of the results.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

The global economic crisis is putting a strain on environmental and social policies, but the extent to which the crisis is affecting these policies isn't always clear. A new study sheds light on policymaking in dire times.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Social and environmental sustainability depends highly on economic stability and growth, presenting a tough challenge for policymakers who are forced to rethink their policies during difficult economic downturns. The EU has been a driver and model of social and environmental policies, yet the crisis has often required the dismantling of complex policies that have been built over time.

Understanding this ebb and flow of policymaking to enhance sustainability and measuring policy dismantling used to ease economic pressures is crucial to the health of the EU and its citizens. In this context, the EU-funded project Consensus examined the validity of balancing trade-offs by dismantling policies. The project investigated the dynamics among the economic, environmental and social objectives of sustainable development.

In particular, the project studied economic pressure caused by globalisation and domestic macroeconomic austerity in EU countries. It also looked closely at social and environmental policies, examining how they are expanding or contracting. From these elaborate studies, it developed a model for understanding policy change and demystifying the often overlooked concept of policy dismantling. A strong focus was placed on examining regulatory density (extent to which a certain policy area is covered by governmental activities) and regulatory stringency (intensity or strictness of adopted measures).

Among the project's main findings, Consensus noted three possible international drivers for policy change: namely, regulatory competition, harmonisation and policy dissemination. It also highlighted three domestic drivers for policy change, these being macroeconomic austerity pressures, problem pressure, and domestic politics and institutions. The project's key achievements also included the development of indicators to measure aspects of policy change and guidance for the national policy experts in collecting relevant research data.

Overall, the project found that social policy change is more balanced than that of environmental policy, with the latter being more resistant to dismantlement. It then underlined the importance of analysing policy expansion and policy dismantling jointly in order to better understand policy change.

The project's insights and policy modelling will help governments capture the exact causes behind policy dismantlement and policy change. This will lead to the formulation of more effectivepolicies in the future that take economic factors into consideration. Lastly, this in-depth look at policymaking and policy dismantling could help safeguard against the unnecessary breaking down of social and environmental regulations at the first sign of a crisis.