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2381. Legislate or Delegate? Bargaining over Implementation and Legislative Authority in the European Union

Author:
Henry Farrell, Adrienne Héritier, and Carl-Fredrik Bergström
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
In this article we explain how actors' ability to bargain successfully in order to advance their institutional preferences has changed over time as a function of the particular institutional context. We show how actors use their bargaining power under given institutional rules in order to shift the existing balance between legislation and delegation, and shift the rules governing delegation in their favour, between formal treaty changes. We argue that a collective actor's preferences over delegation is a function of whether the actor has more ability to influence policy through delegation or through legislation. We go on to argue that the degree to which a specific actor's preferences can prevail (in a setting in which different actors have different preferences) will depend upon its bargaining power under existing institutional rules, i.e. its ability to impede or veto policy in order to change the division between legislation and delegation and the rules of delegation. Our primary focus in this article is on choice over procedure; i.e. the battles over whether or not delegation or legislation should be employed. We maintain a secondary focus on change in procedure, examining how different procedures of comitology have come into being and been removed from the table. We examine the evolution of the debate over comitology and implementation, over five key periods. We scrutinize how actors within these periods seek to shift the balance of legislation and delegation and the rules of delegation according to their preferences. Our conclusions assess our empirical findings on the basis of our model.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Europe

2382. The Composition of the College of Commissioners: Patterns of Delegation

Author:
Holger Döring
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Recent theoretical studies question the view that the European Commission is a preference outlier. This paper addresses this question by discussing the composition of the European College of Commissioners and by focusing on the appointment process. The analysis is based on a dataset that contains biographical information for all commissioners since 1958. The analysis highlights the importance of commissioners' party affiliation and their former political positions. Multivariate regression analysis shows that smaller member states have tended to send more high-ranking politicians to the College of Commissioners than larger member states. However, party affiliation has not become more important as an appointment criterion. What has changed with time has not been the party link but the caliber of positions held by commissioners before they are appointed to the College.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

2383. One Path or Several? Understanding the Varied Development of Tripartism in New European Capitalisms

Author:
Sabina Avdagic
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Are newly established institutions capable of shaping actors' strategies and coordinating behavior on a single path? Contrary to punctuated equilibrium analyses, this paper suggests that the constraining capacity of a range of newly established institutions in new European capitalisms is weak and that their very interpretation is subject to contention. Focusing on peak-level tripartism – a formally similar institution whose functioning has varied across national contexts – this paper proposes an actor-centered framework to elucidate the logic and consequences of actors' ongoing strategic maneuvering for the interpretation, enactment, and development of these young institutions. Combining insights of rational choice and historical institutionalism, the paper develops a heuristic model which, by focusing on strategic choices of government officials and union leaders, links the varied enactment of tripartism to different power balances that become mutually accepted in the course of their repeated interactions. In offering a set of falsifiable propositions, the paper provides a guideline for building analytical narratives to evaluate empirically this model.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

2384. Rational Choice and EU Politics

Author:
Mark A. Pollack
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Over the past two decades, rational choice theories have made rapid inroads into the study of EU politics. This paper examines the application of rational choice analyses to EU politics, assesses the empirical fruitfulness of such analyses, and identifies both internal and external challenges to the rational choice study of the EU. With regard to the empirical fruitfulness of rational choice, the paper notes charges of methodological 'pathologies' in rational choice work, but suggests that rational choice approaches have produced productive research programs and shed light on concrete empirical cases including the legislative, executive and judicial politics of the EU, as well as on other questions such as public opinion and Europeanization. Turning to external critiques, the paper examines claims that rational choice is ‘ontologically blind' to certain phenomena such as endogenous preference formation and sources of change. While rational choice as a research program does focus scholars attention on certain types of questions, rational choice scholars have theorized explicitly, alongside scholars from other theoretical traditions, about both national preference formation and about endogenous source of change, thereby clarifying and advancing the study of both phenomena.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

2385. 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

2386. 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

2387. Living on a Life Support Machine: The Challenge of Rebuilding Afghanistan

Author:
Peter J. Middlebrook and Sharon M. Miller
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:
The forthcoming “London Conference” on Afghanistan (January 31-February 1, 2006), to be attended by President Hamid Karzai, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Paul Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank, brings together high ranking dignitaries from the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the international development community to endorse a new multilateral agreement to be known as the “Afghanistan Compact,” the successor of the Bonn Agreement.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Middle East, and London

2388. Radical Democracy in the Andes: Indigenous Parties and the Quality of Democracy in Latin America

Author:
Donna Lee Van Cott
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
I explore whether recently formed indigenous political parties in Ecuador and Bolivia are fulfilling their promise to improve the quality of local government by establishing institutions that promote intercultural cooperation and the participation of individuals and civil society groups. To the extent that such improvements have occurred, I seek to identify the conditions under which they succeed. I argue that under certain conditions even "least-likely cases" for the establishment of radical democratic models can produce positive changes in relations among hostile ethnic groups, shift resources toward underserved populations, and create spaces for citizens and civil society groups to deliberate public spending priorities. Such models are most likely to work when indigenous parties and their social movement sponsors are able to (1) maintain internal unity and solidarity; (2) develop distinct, complementary roles; (3) attract charismatic, talented mayors who are willing and able to work across ethnic lines; (4) reelect successful mayors; and (5) attract resources and technical support from external donors.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, and Development
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, Ecuador, and Bolivia

2389. Latin American Catholicism in an Age of Religious and Political Pluralism: A Framework for Analysis

Author:
Frances Hagopian
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This article identifies and proposes a framework to explain the responses of Latin America's Roman Catholic churches to a new strategic dilemma posed by religious and political pluralism. Because the church's goals of defending institutional interests, evangelizing, promoting public morality, and grounding public policy in Catholic social teaching cut across existing political cleavages, Church leaders must make strategic choices about which to emphasize in their messages to the faithful, investment of pastoral resources, and alliances. I develop a typology of Episcopal responses based on the cases of Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico, and explain strategic choices by the church's capacity to mobilize civil society, its degree of religious hegemony, and the ideological orientations of Catholics. The analysis draws from 620 Episcopal documents issued since 2000.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Religion
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, South America, Latin America, Mexico, and Chile

2390. Escaping the Cultural Context of Human Rights

Author:
Andrew Fagan
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
The contemporary age appears beset and driven by moral and political disputes, disagreements, fundamental misunderstandings, and mutual incomprehension. Secularists and religious believers systematically argue past one another. Doctrinal differences across and within religious communities persist despite, in many cases, centuries of dialogue and debate. Many of these disputes are neither trivial nor banal, but go to the heart of some of the most enduring and fundamental political questions and concerns. Foremost among them is the question: how can we co-exist in a peaceful and harmonious manner that does not entail a wholesale renunciation of those constitutive beliefs and practices that make us who we are? How can we be and let be? The search for a sufficiently robust common ground is increasingly urgent and appears increasingly difficult to achieve at regional, national, and international levels. Some readers might balk at this particular characterization of the world “out there,” for some, a solution may appear readily at hand, requiring only sufficient political will and courage to be realized. On this view, the moral and legal doctrine of human rights provides the normative cement capable of overcoming conflict and holding the world together. For many advocates of human rights the doctrine and its core principles are neither partial nor contingent. Human rights, it is argued, address a global community of morally equal individuals. The right to life and the right to be free from torture are absolute and immutable. Simplifying a very complicated series of philosophical arguments, no rational individual, however powerful, is considered rationally capable of rejecting the universal application of such core principles. The doctrine of human rights is a necessary and sufficient means for resolving the phenomenon of moral and political conflict and offers a sustainable answer to the question of how we might live together despite our deep differences.
Topic:
Development, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Politics