Asymmetrical regulation and multidimensional governance in the European Union 1

Abstract

This paper argues that economic and monetary regulation at the supranational level and social deregulation at the national level are two sides of the same coin. Contrary to mainstream multilevel governance literature, it tries to answer why this mode of asymmetrical governance has emerged and what kind of European Union it seeks to promote. Under the heading of competitiveness, economic and monetary decision-making power moves beyond nation-states and democratic accountability, in the process disembedding the European welfare systems and pushing the so-called European model of welfare capitalism towards the‘shareholder practices’of Anglo-Saxon capitalism. In the meantime, illusions of national sovereignty and a People's Europe are upheld. Here enters the New Populism: by introducing vagaries such as‘subsidiarity’and‘flexibility’into the European Treaties, and by using terms from consultancy like‘best practice’and‘benchmarking’, the illusion of national self-determination is maintained while creepingly empowering a European‘invisible hand’.