scholarly journals A "Privileged Partnership?" Franco-German Relations and the Development of EU Social Policy

1995 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 253-276
Author(s):  
Michael G. Huelshoff
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
European Level ◽  
European Union Studies

The revival of European Union studies has, to date, been guided primarily by intergovernmental theories of regional integration. This essay examines one intergovernmental model of regional integration, namely coalition building between France and Germany. In a case study of EU social policy, it is found that the trajectory of policy-making is not consistent with the predictions of the coalition version of intergovemmentalism. Rather, models of regional integration should pay more attention to the domestic politics of members to better explain their behavior at the European level.

1. An Overview

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Mark A. Pollack ◽  
Christilla Roederer-Rynning ◽  
Alasdair R. Young
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Eu Policy ◽  
Eu Policies ◽  
Ongoing Experiment

The European Union represents a remarkable, ongoing experiment in the collective governance of a multinational continent of nearly 450 million citizens and 27 member states. The key aim of this volume is to understand the processes that produce EU policies: that is, the decisions (or non-decisions) by EU public authorities facing choices between alternative courses of public action. We do not advance any single theory of EU policy-making, although we do draw extensively on theories of European integration, international cooperation, comparative politics, and contemporary governance; and we identify five ‘policy modes’ operating across the 15 case study chapters in the volume. This chapter introduces the volume by summarizing our collective approach to understanding policy-making in the EU, identifying the significant developments that have impacted EU policy-making since the seventh edition of this volume, and previewing the case studies and their central findings.

scholarly journals All by themselves? Legislative regions and the use of unmediated access to the European level

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Lena Högenauer
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Regulatory Policy ◽  
European Policy ◽  
European Level ◽  
European Union Policy ◽  
European Directives ◽  
Interest Representation ◽  
Regional Interest ◽  
Union Policy

Since the 1980s, the level of activism of regions in European Union policy-making has greatly increased, leading to the emergence of claims that regional governments can and do bypass national government in European negotiations. However, two decades after the emergence of the concept, the debate about the ability of regions to engage successfully in this process of continuous negotiation and to represent their interests on the European stage is ongoing. Due to the scarcity of research looking at regional interest representation in concrete cases of policy-making, it has been difficult to establish to what extent and under which circumstances regions do rely on unmediated channels of interest representation on the European level. This article examines these questions through the activities of seven legislative regions during two negotiations of European Directives, as legislative regions have a wider choice of channels of interest representation. Overall, extensive use of unmediated access in regulatory policy-making is rare and can best be explained with reference to domestic conflict and the level of influence of a region in domestic European policy-making. Differences in the size of a region also influence the ability of a region to represent its interests in the coordination of the national position and at the European level.

scholarly journals A historical and judicial approach on the transformation of the European Communities, the predecessors of the European Union, into an institutional model across the region

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-23
Author(s):  
Mihail Poalelungi ◽  
◽  
Mihai Poalelungi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Level ◽  
Broad Area ◽  
Institutional Governance ◽  
Institutional Model ◽  
The Eu

The process of European integration has never followed a clear path and the current EU predecessors had never been by far the only efforts of the regional integration in Europe. Created in the 1950s, the European Communities as today’s EU predecessors, have overdue emerged in a very broad area populated by international organizations and various cooperation institutions. This organization, only by matching economic and political challenges, succeeded in becoming the most important cooperation forum between European states. Although in the early 1950s the Western European states could often choose between various forms of regional cooperation, today the EU is frequently seen as the only available at the European level option and the only model of institutional governance.

‘With Whom We Talk?’ Drawing Regions in 21st Century Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Mădălin-Cătălin Blidaru
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New States

"The African continent inherited borders drawn by foreign actors for centuries, with a limited influence exerted by its internal political structures. This impacted its development across decades, acting as a contributing factor to economic, social and political conflicts, some of them resulting in further divisions in time: new states emerged, while the federal structures developed within some states remain unstable. In this paper, the author investigates the current regional groupings of states established in different African frameworks in an attempt to answer the question “how external actors influence and legitimize the development of regions” in 21st century. From a functionalist perspective, it explores the motives for the formation of a wide range of regional integration and cooperation organizations. The case study of G5 Sahel, an institutionalized regional arrangement focused on security and development of its member states, is analyzed as an arrangement emerged with support from France and the European Union. The case study analysis trails the cooperation with these two foreign actors with the G5 Sahel member states in the five years, focused on evolution, financing and joint initiatives – including to what extent these contributed to consolidation of the regional borders. Keywords: region-building, G5 Sahel, regional cooperation, European Union, development cooperation "

17. Organized Interests

2020 ◽  
pp. 316-332
Author(s):  
Simon Bulmer ◽  
Owen Parker ◽  
Ian Bache ◽  
Stephen George ◽  
Charlotte Burns
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Central Component ◽  
European Level ◽  
Organized Interests ◽  
The Eu

This chapter focuses on the so-called organized interests, whose interaction with the formal European Union (EU) institutions is a central component of the EU’s decision-making process. The term ‘interest group’ refers to a range of organizations outside of the formal institutions that seek to influence decision making. They provide a link between state actors and the rest of society, also known as ‘civil society’. The chapter first considers the general growth of interest group activity at the European level before discussing the types of group that try to influence EU policy making and the forms of representation open to interests. It then explores the strategies and tactics that interest groups use to try to influence the different institutions. Finally, it analyses the issue of regulating interest group access to the EU institutions.

European Union Decision Making: The Role of Sub-National Authorities

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Bomberg ◽  
John Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Important Determinant ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Eu

This article assesses how and to what extent sub-national authorities (SNAs) are represented in EU decision making. In particular, we compare the European goals and strategies of British sub-national authorities with those of their counterparts in Germany. Our central argument is that SNAs starting from very different positions face many of the same challenges and problems, even if their domestic constitutional positions remain the most important determinant of their influence at the EU level. Influence in EU decision making derives largely from effective coalition building, both with other like-minded actors but also, inevitably in the case of sub-national authorities, with central governments. Our case study highlights the enormous diversity of relationships between central governments and ‘their’ SNAs across the Union. It thus encourages scepticism about the feasibility of a ‘Europe of the Regions’.

Microsimulation of Social Policy in the European Union: Case Study of a European Minimum Pension

Economica ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 69 (274) ◽  
pp. 229-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Atkinson ◽  
Francois Bourguignon ◽  
Cathal O'Donoghue ◽  
Holly Sutherland ◽  
Francesca Utili
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Minimum Pension

scholarly journals ‘EVERYMAN A CAPITALIST’ OR ‘FREE TO CHOOSE’? EXPLORING THE TENSIONS WITHIN THATCHERITE INDIVIDUALISM

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 477-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALED DAVIES ◽  
JAMES FREEMAN ◽  
HUGH PEMBERTON
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of Choice ◽  
Social Policy Reform ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Individual

AbstractIt is widely recognized that ‘the individual’ was prioritized by the Thatcher governments. However, there has been little analysis by historians of exactly how the Thatcher government conceptualized ‘the individual’. In this article, we attempt to remedy this deficiency by undertaking a case-study of a key Thatcherite social policy reform: the introduction of ‘personal pensions’. This approach allows us to understand the position of ‘the individual’ on the functional level of Thatcherite policy-making. In doing so, we argue that there was no coherent or fixed Thatcherite concept of the individual. Instead, we identify three fundamental tensions: (i) should individuals be capitalists or consumers; (ii) were they rational or irrational; and (iii) should they be risk-taking entrepreneurs or prudent savers? This reflected, in part, conflicts within the diverse tapestry of post-war neoliberal thought. We demonstrate in this article that these tensions undermined the Thatcher governments’ original attempt to create a society of entrepreneurial investor-capitalists, which in turn cemented their preference for simply maximizing individual freedom of choice within a competitive – yet tightly regulated – market environment.

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