Research question/goal:

Regulating and deregulating the European labor market was conceptualized as part of broader policy domain of the European labor and social policy. First, the relevant actors in this policy domain were identified. This was done by analyzing overlapping memberships in committies of the European governing system. As as second step central directives of EU legislation were selected, so that the impact of the decision procedure on consensus buildung could be analyzed. The best predictions of the results were possible by applying an exchange model with the restriction that policy exchanges were only possible within and not between single directives.