To increase better work-life balance for parents and carers in Europe, an initiative for a directive on the issue was presented by the European Commission in April 2017. The European Commission stated that the aims of the directive was to improve work-life balance for parents and carers in Europe with legislative and non-legislative measures. The initiative had been in process since a roadmap presented by the European Commission in 2015 with the intention of modernize existing former framework in the area. However, the social dimension in EU has been questioned for being purely symbolic politics. Therefore, the aim of this essay is to examine the motives behind the decision-making of the directive and analyse if the directive is a case of symbolic politics. This case is examined by comparing symbolic politics motives with a taxonomy in relation to instrumental motives with a rational standpoint. The reason for examining different motives is that symbolic politics is viewed as an aspect of politics and can’t be explained alone. To summarise, both instrumental and symbol politics motives have been a part of the decision process towards a new directive for work-life balance in Europe. It has been revealed that symbolic politics motives can explain parts in the decision process that could not be explained by instrumental motives.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-100895 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Olsson, Lovisa |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för statsvetenskap (ST) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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