The Time Of European Governance

A study of the impact of European governance on the time of national policymakers and institutions. A theoretical approach to the changing demands of policy-planning as the focus shifts to the present and new demands and rhythms influence European decision-making.

This publication compares for the first time how the regions in seven different countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) are involved in EU governance. It is also the first book which tackles this matter from two different perspectives; that of EU law and that of comparative law. It includes contributions both from well-established scholars in the field of EU law and from younger scholars.

This book approaches the notion of good governance from three different angles. First it establishes whether it is a meaningful notion at all by taking a closer look at the parameters of good governance. Secondly, the authors look at the institutional translation of the criteria of good governance. In a third dimension, the concept may be analysed in relation to a number of substantive issues.

European politics has been reshaped in recent decades by a dual process of centralization and decentralization. At the same time that authority in many policy areas has shifted to the suprantional level of the European Union, so national governments have given subnational regions within countries more say over the lives of their citizens. At the forefront of scholars who characterize this dual process as Omulti-level governance,OLiesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks argue that its emergence in the second half of the twentieth century is a watershed in the political development of Europe. Hooghe and Marks explain why multi-level governance has taken place and how it shapes conflict in national and European political arenas. Drawing on a rich body of original research, the book is at the same time written in a clear and accessible style for undergraduates and non-experts.

This book on the differentiated politicisation of European governance provides an overview of research on the growing salience of EU governance, polarisation of opinion and expansion of actors and audiences engaged in monitoring and influencing EU affairs in the national context. The contributors empirically map the diversity of these three core components of politicisation across countries, time and arenas. The chapters develop novel insights into the causes and consequence of this differentiated politicisation of European governance. Going beyond the current literature, the contributions disaggregate and examine politicisation processes among different sets of actors and on different objects using quantitative and qualitative methods leading to a differentiated picture of politicisation patterns across EU-member states and non-member states, such as Switzerland. They highlight the explanatory power of intermediating factors, like the institutional surrounding and country-specific economic and cultural conditions in addition to the transfer of political authority to the EU as the main driver of politicisation. This book was previously published as a special issue of West European Politics.

This book examines some of the major origins of change in institutions and policies in European governance. The authors combine a sophisticated institutional analysis with in-depth insights into European policies across a wide variety of policy fields. The fields examined are higher education, employment, research, police co-operation, as well as foreign affairs, trade, energy, and security and defence policy. Presenting the fruit of years of collaboration in an EU-funded Research Training Network, the authors expand the mechanisms through which political actors transform apparent deadlock into actual change in European policy making.

Redefinitions of EU borders (enlargements, Brexit), geopolitical challenges (conflicts, migrations, terrorism, environmental risks) and the economic and financial crises have triggered debates on the common values that hold European countries and citizens together, justify public action and ensure the sustainability of European governance. This book discusses the genesis of and increasing references to "European values", their appropriation by diverse groups of actors and their impact on public action. It argues that European values are a broad and flexible symbolic repertoire, instrumental to serving diverging ends, and a resource for both negotiation and conflicts. Looking at the broader picture, the book reflects on the role of values in the institutionalization of the EU as a political order and paves the way to an assessment of its singularity in comparison with other polities across time and space. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU politics, comparative politics, IR, public policy, sociology and cultural studies.