European Social Policy brings together a distinguished group of specialists who examine the development and current status of European social policies in areas such as social security, industrial relations, regional development, gender equity, agriculture, and immigration. The authors emphasize the distinctive dynamic that arises from a multitiered system in which individual member states share policymaking responsibilities with central authorities.

European social policy, emerging in conjunction with the construction of the common market, is the result of a pluralistic process in which member states, social actors, and European institutions, such as the Commission and the European Court of Justice, all vie for influence. According to the authors, the highly fragmented structure of European social policy typifies policymaking in the new European polity, where policy develops without being under the firm control of any particular political group.

1. The book also provides a comparison of social policymaking in the EU with that in Canada and the United States, two other multitiered, or federal, systems.