ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the development of new governance in the European Union (EU) demands a re-evaluation of two of the central tenets of the Integration Through Law (ITL) project: first its thesis on the centrality of law to the EU's ongoing integration. Secondly, the use of law to provide a participatory form of convergence between European societies. The decisive difference with new governance was its ability to create new spaces for rule-making in informal administrative networks, rather than via private litigation. In short, the presence of an 'insider's club' is promoted by the very nature of dynamic accountability models. In a recent contribution, Carol Harlow and Richard Rawlings capture this problem. Social policy in the EU cannot be 'harmonized' in the sense of creating common EU standards without doing serious damage to the legitimate diversity of national welfare states.
