ABSTRACT
The ‘state of the art’ of academic writing about the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) provides contrasting findings about the effectiveness of this soft mode of European governance. Although many initial writings were quite supportive of the OMC, praise for it has recently turned into scepticism. These sceptical views seem to be in sharp contrast with other evaluations which provide convincing evidence of different kinds of ‘impact’ of these OMCs.2
This confusion about OMC effectiveness, which is discussed throughout this book (see for example the chapters by Heidenreich, Preunkert and Zirra, Van Gerven and Beckers, and Zeitlin), raises the question of how to define and measure the effectiveness of soft modes of governance. This is indeed a key question, since the many (opposed) interpretations of the OMC’s impact at national level are largely due to the absence of an agreed analytical framework for such an assessment.3
