THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL AND THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION – ORIGINS AND TRANSFORMATIONS

Abstract

The paper describes the cooperation between the International Labour Organisation and the new post- WWII European institutions – mainly Council of Europe and European Economic Community – in the fi eld of social security. At the centre of interest are ILO Convention 102 (1952) and the ILO’s “Ohlin report” (1956) and how they have co-shaped the evolution of the “European Social Model” in the long run. In its second part, the paper nests these developments into the paradigm change, that took place in the 1970s, from Keynesian to neo-liberal policies. While taking due account of ILO–EU divergence in social policy, which began in the 1960s, it describes in broad strokes the later impacts of the paradigm change on social policy formulation in the (new) “competition state”, in which welfare (“the ESM”) was no longer the goal but became a means to strengthen economic performance.