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  3. Themes in European Governance

The evolving European systems of governance, in particular the European Union, challenge and transform the state, the most important locus of governance and political identity over the last 200 years. The series Themes in European Governance aims to publish the best theoretical and analytical scholarship on the impact of European governance on the core institutions, policies and identities of nation-states. It focuses on central themes such as citizenship, welfare, political decision-making, and economic, monetary and fiscal policies. An initiative of Cambridge University Press and the Programme on Advanced Research on the Europeanisation of the Nation-State (ARENA), Norway, the series includes contributions in the social sciences, humanities and law. The series aims to provide theoretically-oriented, empirically-informed studies analysing key issues both at the European level and within European states. Volumes in the series will be of interest to scholars and students of Europe within Europe and worldwide. It will be of particular relevance to those interested in the development of the sovereignty and governance of European states, and in the issues raised by multi-level governance and multi-national integration throughout the world.

  • General Editors: Andreas Føllesdal, Advanced Reseach on the Europeanisation of the Nation-State (ARENA), Oslo
  • Editorial Boards: Stefano Bartolini, Ulrich Preuss, Helen Wallace, Beate Kohler-Koch, Thomas Risse, Albert Weale, Percy Lehning, Fritz W. Scharpf, J. H. H. Weiler, Andrew Moravcsik, Philip Schlesinger

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14 results in Themes in European Governance

Europe's Foreign and Security Policy
  • The Institutionalization of Cooperation
  • Michael E. Smith
  • Published online:
    21 January 2010
    Print publication:
    13 November 2003
  • The emergence of a common security and foreign policy has been one of the most contentious issues accompanying the integration of the European Union. In this book, Michael Smith examines the specific ways foreign policy cooperation has been institutionalized in the EU, the way institutional development affects cooperative outcomes in foreign policy, and how those outcomes lead to new institutional reforms. Smith explains the evolution and performance of the institutional procedures of the EU using a unique analytical framework, supported by extensive empirical evidence drawn from interviews, case studies, official documents and secondary sources. His perceptive and well-informed analysis covers the entire history of EU foreign policy cooperation, from its origins in the late 1960s up to the start of the 2003 constitutional convention. Demonstrating the importance and extent of EU foreign/security policy, the book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and policy-makers.

Immigration and Politics in the New Europe
  • Reinventing Borders
  • Gallya Lahav
  • Published online:
    18 December 2009
    Print publication:
    22 April 2004
  • With almost a quarter of the world's migrants, Europe has been attempting to regulate migration and harmonize immigration policy at the European level. The central dilemma exposed is how liberal democracies can reconcile the need to control the movement of people with the desire to promote open borders, free markets and liberal standards. Gallya Lahav's book traces ten years of public opinion and elite attitudes toward immigration cross-nationally to show how and why increasing EU integration may not necessarily lead to more open immigration outcomes. Empirical evidence reveals that support from both elite and public opinion has led to the adoption of restrictive immigration policies despite the requirements of open borders. Unique in bringing together original data on European legislators and national elites, longitudinal data on public opinion and institutional and policy analyses, this 2004 study provides an important insight into the processes of European integration, and globalization more broadly.

Markets and Moral Regulation
  • Cultural Change in the European Union
  • Paulette Kurzer
  • Published online:
    16 October 2009
    Print publication:
    02 July 2001
  • Does European integration influence national cultures and social policies? Is Europe's fabled cultural diversity diminishing? In this book, Paulette Kurzer examines these important and topical questions by comparing the Irish abortion ban, Finnish and Swedish drinking restrictions, and Dutch drug decriminalization. Employing a synthesis of constructivist and institutionalist theories, Kurzer demonstrates that domestic shifts in values and attitudes, spurred along by the impact of EC/EU market integration, are in fact bringing about a convergence in European morality norms. Alcohol control policies are forced to liberalize, the Irish abortion proscription is being redefined, and Dutch drug toleration is pushed into a more punitive direction. Markets and Moral Regulation argues that a crucial agency is European law and its role as a market regulator: as market forces invade these cultural and moral spheres, protective barriers disintegrate. The result is that cultural and social domains are increasingly exposed to the influence of market competition.

The EU, NATO and the Integration of Europe
  • Rules and Rhetoric
  • Frank Schimmelfennig
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    18 December 2003
  • Why did Western European states agree to the enlargement of the EU and NATO? Frank Schimmelfennig analyzes the history of the enlargement process and develops a theoretical approach of 'rhetorical action' to explain why it occurred. While rationalist theory explains the willingness of East European states to join the NATO and EU, it does not explain why member states decided to admit them. Using original data, Schimmelfennig shows that expansion to the East can be understood in terms of liberal democratic community building. Drawing on the works of Jon Elster and Erving Goffman, he demonstrates that the decision to expand was the result of rhetorical action. Candidates and their supporters used arguments based on collective identity, norms and values of the Western community to shame opponents into acquiescing to enlargement. This landmark book makes an enormous contribution to theory in international relations and to the study of European politics.

Law and Governance in Postnational Europe
  • Compliance Beyond the Nation-State
  • Edited by Michael Zürn, Christian Joerges
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    03 February 2005
  • This 2005 book argues that Europeanization and globalization have led to ever-more intensive legalization at transnational level. What accounts for compliance beyond the nation-state? The authors tackle this question by comparing compliance with regulations that have been formulated in a very similar way at different levels of governance. They test compliance with rules at the national level, at the regional level (EU), and at a global level (WTO), finding that in fact the EU has higher levels of compliance than both international and national rules. The authors argue that this is because the EU has a higher level of legalization, combined with effective monitoring mechanisms and sanctions. In this respect it seems that the European Union has indeed achieved a high level of legalization and compliance, though the authors add that this achievement does not settle the related queries with the legitimacy of transnational governance and law.

European Integration and Political Conflict
  • Edited by Gary Marks, Marco R. Steenbergen
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    12 February 2004
  • Over the past half-century, Europe has experienced the most radical reallocation of authority that has ever taken place in peace-time, yet the ideological conflicts that will emerge from this are only now becoming apparent. The editors of this 2004 volume, Gary Marks and Marco Steenbergen, have brought together a formidable group of scholars of European and comparative politics to investigate patterns of conflict that are arising in the European Union. Using diverse sources of data, and examining a range of actors, including citizens, political parties, members of the European Parliament, social movements, and interest groups, the authors of this volume conclude that political contestation concerning European integration is indeed rooted in the basic conflicts that have shaped political life in Western Europe for many years. This comprehensive volume provides an analysis of political conflict in the European Union.

The Europeanisation of National Administrations
  • Patterns of Institutional Change and Persistence
  • Christoph Knill
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    09 August 2001
  • Christoph Knill's book analyses the impact of European policies on national administrations. Under which conditions can we expect domestic change, particularly the convergence of administrative styles and structures? How can we explain national patterns of administrative transformation in the context of Europeanisation? Knill's study is a comparative assessment of the factors influencing administrative adjustment to European policy demands in the member states. It addresses the topic from an innovative theoretical perspective, combining institution-based and agency-based approaches, and includes a detailed account of the administrative impact of EU environmental policy in Britain and Germany. The Europeanisation of National Administrations will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners in the fields of European studies, public administration and public policy, environmental politics, and European and administrative law.

States and Regions in the European Union
  • Institutional Adaptation in Germany and Spain
  • Tanja A. Börzel
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    29 November 2001
  • Tanja Börzel argues that the effect of Europeanization on the politics and institutions of the EU's member states depends on the degree of conflict between European and domestic norms and rules. This book examines the relationship between the central state and regions in Germany and Spain, showing how Europeanization has served to weaken the powers of the regions. In both countries, the regions were forced to cooperate more closely with the centre, but the institutional impact in the two countries has been strikingly different. In Germany the existing cooperative Federal system was reinforced, but in Spain the traditional competitive relationship between the levels of government could not continue. Europeanization has led to a significant change in the pattern of Spanish politics, turning rivalry into cooperation. This book thus presents an important analysis of the impact of Europeanization on domestic politics, and on the relationship between states and regions in particular.

Complying with Europe
  • EU Harmonisation and Soft Law in the Member States
  • Gerda Falkner, Oliver Treib, Miriam Hartlapp, Simone Leiber
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    26 May 2005
  • What does EU law truly mean for the member states? Do they abide or don't they? This book presents the first encompassing and in-depth empirical study of the effects of 'voluntaristic' and (partly) 'soft' EU policies in all 15 member states. The authors examine 90 case studies across a range of EU Directives and shed light on burning contemporary issues in political science, integration theory, and social policy. They reveal that there are major implementation failures and that, to date, the European Commission has not been able adequately to perform its control function. While all countries are occasional non-compliers, some quite frequently privilege their domestic political concerns over performance of their EU-related duties. Others neglect these EU obligations as a matter of course. This study answers questions of crucial importance for politics in theory and in practice, and suggests how implementation of EU law can be fostered in the future.

Leadership and Negotiation in the European Union
  • Jonas Tallberg
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    24 August 2006
  • In this 2006 book, Jonas Tallberg offers a novel perspective on some of the most fundamental questions about international cooperation and European Union politics. Offering the first systematic theoretical and empirical exploration of the influence wielded by chairmen of multilateral negotiations, Tallberg develops a rationalist theory of formal leadership and demonstrates its explanatory power through carefully selected case studies of EU negotiations. He shows that the rotating Presidency of the EU constitutes a power platform that grants governments unique opportunities to shape the outcomes of negotiations. His provocative analysis establishes that Presidencies, while performing vital functions for the EU, simultaneously exploit their privileged political position to favour national interests. Extending the scope of the analysis to international negotiations on trade, security and the environment, Tallberg further demonstrates that the influence of the EU Presidency is not an isolated occurrence but the expression of a general phenomenon in world politics - the power of the chair.

The European Court and Civil Society
  • Litigation, Mobilization and Governance
  • Rachel A. Cichowski
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    08 March 2007
  • The European Union today stands on the brink of radical institutional and constitutional change. The most recent enlargement and proposed legal reforms reflect a commitment to democracy: stabilizing political life for citizens governed by new regimes, and constructing a European Union more accountable to civil society. Despite the perceived novelty of these reforms, this book explains (through quantitative data and qualitative case analyses) how the European Court of Justice has developed and sustained a vibrant tradition of democratic constitutionalism since the 1960s. The book documents the dramatic consequences of this institutional change for civil society and public policy reform throughout Europe. Cichowski offers detailed empirical and historical studies of gender equality and environmental protection law across fifteen countries and over thirty years, revealing important linkages between civil society, courts and the construction of governance. The findings bring into question dominant understandings of legal integration.

A Union of Diversity
  • Language, Identity and Polity-Building in Europe
  • Peter A. Kraus
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    10 March 2008
  • The European Union's motto 'United in Diversity' contrasts with the cultural standardization entailed in the formation of nation-states and the forging of political identities in Europe. So what does being 'united in diversity' mean? Focusing on language politics and policies, this book offers a thorough assessment of the implications of cultural and linguistic diversity for the process of constructing a European polity. It sheds light on some of the most pressing problems associated with contemporary identity politics. It is often claimed that the recurrent celebration of diversity in Europe's programmatic declarations has an effective political impact. Kraus offers a critical analysis of how the EU has responded to the normative challenge of creating an institutional frame for integration which allows cultural differences to be transcended without ignoring them.

Democratic Politics in the European Parliament
  • Simon Hix, Abdul G. Noury, Gérard Roland
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    19 April 2007
  • With the European Parliament comprising politicians from many different countries, cultures, languages, national parties and institutional backgrounds, one might expect politics in the Parliament to be highly-fragmented and unpredictable. By studying more than 12,000 recorded votes between 1979 and 2004 this 2007 book establishes that the opposite is in fact true: transnational parties in the European Parliament are highly cohesive and the classic 'left-right' dimension dominates voting behaviour. Furthermore, the cohesion of parties in the European Parliament has increased as the powers of the Parliament have increased. The authors suggest that the main reason for these developments is that like-minded MEPs have incentives to form stable transnational party organizations and to use these organizations to compete over European Union policies. They suggest that this is a positive development for the future of democratic accountability in the European Union.

The European Commission and the Integration of Europe
  • Images of Governance
  • Liesbet Hooghe
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    10 January 2002
  • What kind of European Union do top Commission officials want? Should the European Union be supranational or intergovernmental? Should it promote market-liberalism or regulated capitalism? Should the Commission be Europe's government or its civil service? This 2002 book examines top officials' preferences on these questions through analysis of unique data from 137 interviews. Understanding the forces that shape human preferences is the subject of intense debate. Hooghe demonstrates that the Commission has difficulty shaping its employees' preferences in the fluid multi-institutional context of the European Union. Top officials' preferences are better explained by experiences outside rather than inside the Commission: political party, country, and prior work leave deeper imprints than directorate-general or cabinet. Preferences are also influenced more by internalized values than by self-interested career calculation. Hooghe's findings are surprising, and will challenge a number of common assumptions about the workings and motives of the European Commission.