« Previous |
11 - 14 of 14
|
Next »
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
12. The Transformative Power of Europe: The European Union and the Diffusion of Ideas
- Author:
- Thomas Risse and Tanja A. Börzel
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- This paper sets out the research agenda of the Kolleg-Forschergruppe “The Transformative Power of Europe. The European Union and the Diffusion of Ideas”. The diffusion of ideas has become a central research theme in political science, sociology, law, history, and economics. In this context, the Kolleg-Forschergruppe focuses on the theoretical and methodological challenges of identifying scope conditions for and interaction effects between the various causal mechanisms by which ideas are spread across time and space. We concentrate on the European Union (EU) as an almost ideal laboratory for investigating processes and outcomes of diffusion. First, European integration itself can be described as an effort to promote the diffusion of ideas across Europe and beyond. Second, European societies and polities emulate each other through mimetic processes. Third, Europe and the EU also serve as active promoters of diffusion processes toward the outside world. Last not least, European integration is embedded in and responds to larger global diffusion processes. The Kolleg-Forschergruppe will explore the diffusion of ideas in three thematic areas: “identity and the public sphere,” “compliance, conditionality, and beyond,” and “comparative regionalism and Europe's external relations”.
- Topic:
- Economics, Regional Cooperation, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe
13. Fostering Environmental Regulation? Corporate Social Responsibility in Countries with Weak Regulatory Capacities
- Author:
- Jana Hönk, Nicole Kranz, Tanja A. Börzel, and Adrienne Héritier
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
- Abstract:
- The engagement and influence of multinational business in the developing world and in countries in transition is often highly contested. With regard to their environmental impact, there has been ample evidence for business taking advantage of situations of weak environmental regulation and the devastating effects thereof. More recently, however, certain efforts to counteract such tendencies have emerged with voluntary standards in the context of transnational norms of corporate social responsibility. Our research takes a closer look at the interaction of such voluntary CSR norms and public regulation in countries with limited regulatory capacities. In fact, we ask a rather bold question: Do multinational businesses that are subscribing to international CSR norms also actively promote such standards in countries in which they operate? Looking at the situation of environmental governance in South Africa and taking the mining as well as the food beverage industry as examples, this paper seeks to answer two questions. First, are companies who have subscribed to voluntary environmental standards actually engaging in fostering collective environmental regulation and under which conditions? And second, if they do, which schemes of engagement prevail: do companies engage in fostering collective regulation rather via the state, private self-regulation or in forms of public-private co-regulation?
- Topic:
- Development, Environment, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Africa
14. Recalcitrance, Inefficiency, and Support for European Integration: Why Member States Do (Not) Comply with European Law
- Author:
- Tanja A. Börzel, Meike Dudziak, Tobias Hofmann, Carina Sprungk, and Diana Panke
- Publication Date:
- 01-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This paper seeks to explain inter-state variation in non-compliance with European law. While non-compliance has not significantly increased over time, some member states violate European law more frequently than others. In order to account for the variance observed, we draw on three prominent approaches in the compliance literature–enforcement, management, and legitimacy. In the first place, we develop a set of hypotheses for each of the three theories. We then discuss how they can be combined in theoretically consistent ways and develop three integrated models. Finally, we empirically test these models drawing on a unique and comprehensive dataset, which comprises more than 6,300 instances of member-state non-compliance with European law between 1978 and 1999. The empirical findings show that the combined model of the enforcement and the management approach turns out to have the highest explanatory power. Politically powerful member states are most likely to violate European law while the best compliers are small countries with highly efficient bureaucracies. Yet, administrative capacity also matters for powerful member states. The UK and Germany are much more compliant than France and Italy, which command similar political power but whose administrations are ridden by bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption.
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom, Europe, France, and Italy