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501. Administering information: Eurostat and statistical integration

Author:
Ulf Sverdrup
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This chapter analyses the processes and dynamics of institution building in the European Union (EU). While most studies of EU institution building have dealt with the birth and evolution of key institutions, such as the legislatives, the executives or the courts, the focus is here on a different aspect of democratic governance: the informational foundation of the EU. The chapter examines developments and changes in the organization of numerical information in the EU, in particular the role of Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Commission. How and to what extent can we observe the emergence of a pan-European informational system? How and to what extent has the European information system in Europe interacted and worked together with national statistical institutes?
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

502. It's the Process Stupid! Process Tracing in the Study of European and International Politics

Author:
Jeffrey T. Checkel
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Process tracing is in, acquiring near buzz-word status in certain circles. Europeanists do it; IR scholars do it – all with the goal of bringing theory closer to what really goes on in the world. This makes our scholarship more policy relevant and increases the reliability of our findings - non-trivial advantages, for sure. Yet, such benefits do not come without costs. In particular, proponents of process tracing should be wary of losing sight of the big picture, be aware of the method's significant data requirements, and recognize certain epistemological traps inherent in its application.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

503. Implementation and European integration: A review essay

Author:
Ulf Sverdrup
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This article presents some key research questions and discusses some advancements and controversies in the field of implementation studies in the European Union. In addition to calling for the further development of reliable quantitative indicators, the article suggests three issues worth considering. First, research could benefit from paying increased attention to the processes shaping the goals and aspirations in European implementation. Second, we should increase attention to the interplay between different explanatory mechanisms and in particular to the crucial roles of ambiguities and domestic capabilities. Finally, we should increase our interest into the study of outcomes and goal achievements, and thereby also offer critical and refreshing views on the dynamics of the actual European integration, as well as link this branch of research to the general research on legitimacy and democracy in Europe.
Topic:
Development and International Organization
Political Geography:
Europe

504. Synergies and Tradeoffs in International Cooperation: Broadening, Widening, and Deepening

Author:
Jörg Friedrichs, Jordan Mihov, and Maria Popova
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
International cooperation rests on state preferences with regard to the substantive scope, geographical range, and institutional depth of issue-specific devices to over-come collective action problems. Substantive broadening, geographical widening, and institutional deepening are the elixir of life of the European Union. As is familiar from international cooperation more in general, and not only from European integration, this rests upon a complex process of bargaining among states, each of which has its particular preferences. This paper explores two hypotheses about the relationship be-tween preferences on broadening, widening, and deepening. The first hypothesis as-sumes that the relationship is characterized by a virtuous cycle, while the second hy-pothesis assumes that there are tradeoffs rather than synergies. By looking at a sample of 24 distinct case studies from a specific policy field, namely international coopera-tion against drugs, the paper shows that, at least in this particular policy field, state preferences follow a synergetic pattern of broadening, widening, and deepening.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany

505. Turkey's Reform Effort Reconsidered, 1987-2004

Author:
Kivanç Ulusoy
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This article aims to develop a coherent explanation of the impact of the EU on Turkey's politics between 1987 (the year Turkey applied for EU membership) and 2004, providing a more profound analysis of Turkish political transformation within the framework of its relations with the EU. It integrates Moravcsiks' work on the human rights regime in post-war Europe with Risse's theory on communicative action in world politics to provide an alternative explanatory framework for recent political transformation in Turkey. It will be argued that the main dynamics driving recent democratisation in Turkey were its newfound location within the European human rights regime—a result of having been granted the right to individual petition to the European Court of Human Rights just before its 1987 membership application—and the increasing power of European argument as an alternative way of resolving domestic political conflicts in Turkey.
Topic:
Development, Human Rights, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Turkey

506. Unity and diversity - European style

Author:
Johan P. Olsen
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper argues that contemporary European developments provide a window of opportunity for learning about how political community and authority is possible in spite of enduring diversity. The paper explores sources of political unity and how institutions mediate between diversity and unity. The theoretical discussion is then applied to two European puzzles and it is asked whether there is a "European way" to manage unity and diversity and, more generally, what lessons can be drawn from the European case.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

507. The political organization of Europe: Differentiation and unification

Author:
Johan P. Olsen
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Students of political development try to understand how territorial systems of government arise and disintegrate. They ask how political order and unity is fostered, maintained and lost and under what conditions political community, stable boundaries and legitimate institutions are possible among component units (individuals, groups, organizations, states) that are different in many respects.
Topic:
Development, International Organization, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

508. A Coordinated Approach to Regulation and Civil Liability in European Law: Rethinking Institutional Complementarities

Author:
Fabrizio Cafaggi
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Civil liability is a much older regulatory device than administrative regulation. The emergence of a regulatory state is a relatively new phenomenon. Within regulatory States different modes of regulation and administrative tools have developed, including the extensive use of the private law.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

509. Towards Statehood? The EU's move towards Constitutionalisation and Territorialisation

Author:
Thomas Christiansen
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The recent period of Europe an integration has witnessed the attempt by elites to formalise the long-standing trend towards a constitutionalisation of the European Union. The paper asks whether this process of constitutionalisation, together with a twin process of territorialisation – the development of the EU as bounded political space – can be seen as a move towards state- building at the European level. In order to address these issues, the paper assesses in turn the significance and the impact each of the two processes may have on the 'remaking' of Europe. In this context, the EU's Nordic Dimension, the debate surrounding the Turkish application for EU membership and the evolving Neighbour Policy of the Union are looked at in more detail. By way of conclusion this paper argues that the discourses – rather than the decisions – which have dominated the integration process in recent years, mark something of a departure from the previous 'post-Westphalian' path of European integration, and instead point towards a more statist conception of the Europe an Union. It remains to be seen to what extent these discourses will subsequently have ramifications in normative, institutional and policy-terms, and what resistance to the choices implicit in these discourses will have to confront.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

510. Language Minorities in Europe: Dying species or forerunner of a transnational civil society?

Author:
Hans-Jörg Trenz
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Language minorities can be found as evidence of unfinished nation-building in relatively closed territorial settlements all over contemporary Europe. From a comparative perspective, different paths of accommodating linguistic diversity can be followed resulting in very dissimilar regimes of legal, political and cultural recognition. In recent years, standardisation of minority protection has taken place, with a new emphasis on the values of linguistic diversity, non-discrimination and tolerance. As will be argued, the expanding rights of language minorities must be understood in relation to a re-structuration of nation-states in Europe and a re-evaluation of difference in the course of European integration. The confrontation with internal diversity and the confrontation with a Europe of deep diversity are closely interlinked setting the conditions for the unfolding of a new politics of recognition towards language minorities. This changing minority-majority relationship and the related processes of Europeanization of opportunity structures for the political and cultural mobilisation of language minorities shall be analysed with reference to specific case studies from Germany, France and Spain.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe