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21. Towards an Organization Theory of International Integration

Author:
Morton Egeberg
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper outlines an organization theory of political integration among nationstates. If we assume there are existing shared institutions, political integration is here seen to take place to the extent that lines of conflict coinciding with national borders are complemented with cleavages cutting across such borders so that a multidimensional political space can be observed. I ask what difference organizational characteristics of international or supranational organizations (IOs) make in this respect, other things being equal. The scarce attention devoted to IOs over the last decades has to a certain extent focused on how their organizational resources might have been conducive to increased problem-solving capacity at the international level. A key argument advanced in this paper, however, is that only when international institutions are structured basically according to non-territorial criteria will they start to seriously challenge the intergovernmental logic of political behaviour. In addition, it is argued that only fragmented states and loosely coupled political systems can become profoundly integrated into a larger polity according to the criteria stated above. In order to illustrate the assumptions I look at some key reforms and changes of IOs over the last 200 years.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, International Organization, and Politics

22. Participatory Governance and European Administrative Law: New Legal Benchmarks for the New European Public Order

Author:
Rainer Nickel
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
European Governance is more than just a policy instrument without legal significance. Its regulatory sub-divisions, such as Comitology, the Lamfalussy procedure, and the growing number of European administrative agencies, have colonized substantive parts of the law-shaping and law-making processes. This contribution argues that European Governance is a distinct phenomenon that cannot be easily reconciled with traditional notions of legislation and administration, but needs to be theorized differently. Accordingly, its legal shape has to be adjusted to this new situation, too. Neither a - still only vaguely defined - concept of 'accountability', nor a non-binding policy concept of 'good governance' can fill this gap.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

23. The power of norms in the transposition of EU directives

Author:
Antoaneta Dimitrova and Mark Rhinard
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Transposition research provides an excellent opportunity to bring new data to bear on two of the most dominant theoretical approaches to European Union studies: rational choice institutionalism and sociological institutionalism. Yet the goal of comparable testing is hampered by the underspecified nature of the sociological perspective. This paper takes some steps towards identifying and operationalising a sociological explanation of the transposition of EU directives. Examining an array of alternatives, we single out an approach that focuses on the transmission of norms as a way to explain transposition delay and content changes, and on persuasion to help explain norm change over time. To probe the validity of our explanation, we apply it to a case study of the transposition of two anti-discrimination directives from 2000 in Slovakia. In short, our paper aims to move forward the search for a testable sociological framework in EU studies, while offering an operational approach to studying the process of transposing EU directives.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe and Slovakia

24. The access of business interests to European Union institutions: notes towards a theory

Author:
Rainer Eising
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The unequal access of interest organizations to the EU institutions is often associated with biased European politics. Nonetheless, systematic accounts of interest group access are rare. Rooted in the organizational theory of resource dependencies and drawing on a survey of 800 EU and national business associations, the article presents a broad conception of European political exchange to explain the contact patterns. Ordinal regressions indicate that three dimensions shape these patterns–organizational characteristics, sectoral-economic features, and national modes of interest intermediation. Nonetheless, EU interest intermediation displays only very few general traits–these are the division of labor among EU and national associations, the economic clout, the financial resources and the expertise of interest groups as well as their political mobilization when they face of EU regulation. Else, the interaction patterns vary along the EU institutions and their levels of decision-making underscoring the importance of the institutional opportunity structure.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

25. Conjunctural Causation in Comparative Case-Oriented Research: Exploring the Scope Conditions of Rationalist and Institutionalist Causal Mechanisms

Author:
Jonathan P. Aus
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper highlights one of the major benefits of qualitative comparative methodology as applied within a "small-N" research design, namely its potential use for specifying the scope conditions of (theoretically competing) causal mechanisms. It is argued that the identification of set-theoretic relationships, multiple paths, and analytic efforts in typological mapping can make valuable contributions to the elaboration and further development of middle-range theory.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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