Politics in Time meets the politics of time: historical institutionalism and the EU timescape

2013 ◽  
pp. 138-155
Keyword(s):  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
The Eu

The institutional development of skills formation in Lithuania and Ukraine: Institutional settings, critical junctures and policy transfer

2021 ◽  
pp. 174549992110574
Author(s):  
Vidmantas Tūtlys ◽  
Daiva Bukantaitė ◽  
Sergii Melnyk ◽  
Aivaras Anužis
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Policy Transfer ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
The Eu

The paper compares the institutional development of skills formation in Lithuania and Ukraine by focusing on the implications of the post-communist transition and Europeanization and exploring the role of policy transfer. The research follows the theoretical approach of historical institutionalism and skills formation ecosystems. Despite similar critical junctures typical for the institutional development of skills formation in Lithuania and Ukraine within this timeframe, the existing differences of these development pathways can be explained by the different policy choices and different impacts of the institutional legacy. The main implication of integration with the EU for skills formation in Lithuania and Ukraine is related with enabling holistic and strategic institutional development of skills formation institutions. The paper concludes that policy transfer was one of the key driving forces and capacity-building sources in the development of skills formation institutions in both countries.

Free Movement and the Fragmentation of Family Reunification Rights

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Staver
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Policy Transfer ◽  
Family Reunification ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Reverse Discrimination ◽  
Citizenship Status ◽  
The Family ◽  
Legal Regimes ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Family reunification regulations in the EU are increasingly complex, and they vary for different groups of sponsors. This paper documents the existence of four parallel legal regimes for family reunification — national rules for citizens who do not move, EU rules for citizens who move within Europe, the Family Reunification Directive for third-country nationals in the EU, and since 2011, family reunification rights based on EU citizenship status. This paper asks how and why family reunification rules are being thus fragmented, and in particular why so-called ‘reverse discrimination’, where citizens are disadvantaged vis-à-vis non-citizens, is persisting and deepening. It draws on tools from political science, namely historical institutionalism and studies of policy transfer and Europeanization, to showcase the different logics that underlie these puzzling developments.

scholarly journals Debating Future Harmonization of European Union VAT Regulations: Protests Among Swedish Nonprofit Organizations

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Wallman Lundasen
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Voluntary Sector ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Policy ◽  
The Eu

The article discusses how the introduction of common European Union tax (VAT) regulations may affect the voluntary sector in Sweden. Historically nonprofit organizations in Sweden have enjoyed tax exemption given that their activities are considered to be of a common good purpose. The Commission of the European Union considers the tax exemption to be too generous in the case of Sweden and that it may distort competition in the free market. The protests are analyzed through a historical institutionalism framework where the Swedish paradigm for the voluntary sector is seen as deeply embedded in a specific institutional setting. The EU policy is interpreted by many nonprofit actors as threatening the existing institutional setting.

scholarly journals The EU external policy and the 2015–2018 refugee relocation system in the light of historical institutionalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Czachór
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Integration ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Main Research ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Integration Rules

The main research objective of the text is to analyse the refugee relocation system in the light of historical institutionalism in 2015–2018. Historical institutionalism refers to the interaction between European integration actors in the European Union system, analysed in retrospect from a documentary perspective. The time factor is particularly important, since it enables to follow the institutional process defined by EU norms, procedures and integration rules and their sequential impact on favoured treatment or disavowing of integration visions, preferences, needs and interests. In view of the above, the refugee relocation system proposed and introduced in the period 2015–2018 confirms the above research assumption that the political decision on relocation made by the European Commission and the European Council resulted in a relevant legal act adopted by the EU Council to regulate the issue. Although under the pressure of the situation Member States agreed, some of them began to contest the decisions later.

6. Rational Choice and Historical Institutionalism

2018 ◽  
pp. 108-127
Author(s):  
Mark A. Pollack
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Judicial Politics ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Suboptimal Outcome ◽  
The Eu

The European Union (EU) is without question the most densely institutionalized international organization in the world, and the body of literature known under the rubric of ‘the new institutionalism’ has been applied with increasing success to the study of the Union as a polity and to European integration as a process. This chapter examines rational choice and historical institutionalism and their contributions to EU studies. Following a brief introduction, it traces the origins of rational choice and historical institutionalism, both of which explore the role of institutions in political life, albeit with different emphases. Next, it turns to the EU, exploring the ways in which scholars have drawn on institutionalist theories to understand and explain the legislative, executive, and judicial politics of the EU, as well as the development of EU institutions and policies over time. An in-depth case study applies institutionalist theory to the task of explaining the origins of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis as well as the EU’s response. Historical institutionalist theory, the author suggests, generates important insights into the suboptimal design of the original Maastricht EMU provisions, as well as the EU’s incremental response and the suboptimal outcome of the crisis. The author concludes by suggesting that institutionalist theories offer a variety of valuable insights into the design, effects, and development of EU institutions, while at the same time remaining compatible with other theoretical approaches in the EU scholar’s toolkit.

Historical Institutionalism in the Study of European Integration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Christiansen ◽  
Amy Verdun
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Sociological Institutionalism ◽  
Basic Tenet ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Legal Foundations ◽  
Integration Project ◽  
The Eu

Since the 1990s, historical institutionalism has established itself as a frequently used approach in the study of European integration. One basic tenet of those who use this approach is to take history seriously in the study of European integration—in particular how historical choices on institutionalizing particular procedures and policies explain subsequent patterns of agency. Looking at the manner in which time and institutional structures affect outcomes is central in this approach. In the context of the European Union (EU), the works that have adopted this approach have typically examined developments in policies and institutions over time. While sharing with other institutionalist approaches (such as rational choice and sociological institutionalism) the recognition that “institutions matter,” historical institutionalism introduced particular concepts such as “path dependence” and “critical juncture” into the study of the EU. The distinct contribution here is the capacity of historical institutionalism to explain the persistence of institutional structures and the continuity of policies as well as the reasons for change. In the study of European integration, this approach has been adopted in many areas of research, ranging from studies about the legal foundations of the EU, the workings within institutions of the EU, the process of enlargement, to analyses of various sectors of EU policy-making, and the study of the multiple crises confronting the integration project in the 2010s.

scholarly journals The Case of the European Union Partnership and Cooperation Agreement Negotiations with Thailand

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naila Maier-Knapp
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Developing Economy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Cooperation Agreement ◽  
Economic Dimension ◽  
Negotiation Theory ◽  
The Eu

This article examines the European Union’s (EU) current negotiations of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Thailand. It asks why the EU has entered into the negotiation process with this remote developing economy and provides theoretical explanations for the EU’s motivations. It will give an overview of the process and discuss the issues that have emerged in the course of the negotiations and are currently pending. The article will assess the pre-negotiation phase and the obstacles during the negotiation phase that have delayed the conclusion of the process. The findings will allude to historical institutionalism and a self-devised content-context approach synthesised with William I. Zartman’s insights on negotiation theory. The article argues that despite the importance of the economic dimension of the negotiations and the general prevalence of international political economy in explaining the EU’s relations with Asia, this case reveals a complexity of variables that contest a purely economic lens and allow a theoretically eclectic and reflectivist understanding of the impediments, stimuli and of the process itself.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document