Comparative Politics,Policy Analysis and Governance ‐ A European Contribution to the Study of the European Union?

Policy‐Making in the European Union. Fourth edition. Edited by Helen Wallace and William Wallace. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp.xxvi + 610, 32 figures, 21 boxes, 45 tables, 2 appendices, bibliography, index. £17.99 (paper) ISBN 0–19–878242‐X.

The Political System of the European Union. By Simon Hix. London: Macmillan, 1999. Pp.xx + 427, 53 tables, 28 figures, appendix, bibliography, index. £49.50 (cloth) ISBN 0–333–71653–1; £16.99 (paper) ISBN 0–333–71654‐X.

Decision‐Making in the European Union. By John Peterson and Elizabeth Bomberg. London: Macmillan, 1999. Pp.xvi + 336, 52 boxes, 16 tables, bibliography, index. £47.50 (cloth) ISBN 0–333–60491–1; £15.99 (paper) ISBN 0–333–60492‐X.

The Transformation of Governance in the European Union. Edited by Beate Kohler‐Koch and Rainer Eising. London: Routledge, 1999. Pp.xvi + 320, 7 tables, 2 figures, bibliography, index. £60 (cloth) ISBN 0–415–21548‐X.

Theories of European Integration. By Ben Rosamond. London: Macmillan, 2000. Pp.xiii + 232, 5 tables, 1 figure, bibliography, glossary, index. £42.50 (cloth) ISBN 0–333–64716–5; £13.99 (paper) ISBN 0–333–64717–3.     

European Climate Policy: Toward Centralized Governance?

The EU emissions trading system (ETS) is the first large-scale international emissions trading system and a "cornerstone" in EU climate policy. A key element in the ETS implementation process is deciding upon the ceiling ("cap") for the emissions included in the ETS. Over time, a significant change and centralization of this model has taken place. In order to understand this development, we need to acknowledge the increasing acceptance of stronger centralized governance among the member states due to ETS pilot phase problems; take into consideration frustration in the European Commission over complex and differing National Allocation Plans; and add the fact that the Kyoto Protocol target was getting nearer and a good performance of the "flagship" ETS was becoming increasingly important. Hence, although the case supports the importance of acknowledging the multilevel character of the EU, it still emphasizes the key role of changes in member states' interests and positions for understanding outcomes.     

Race, “Deservingness,” and Social Spending Attitudes: The Role of Policy Delivery Mechanism

This paper examines how the means through which social benefits are delivered—either through a direct government program, or through a tax expenditure program—affects how citizens view social welfare programs and their beneficiaries. Attitudes toward social spending in the United States are strongly conditioned by both racial considerations and perceptions of the deservingness of recipients. We argue that the political cues given by spending conducted through the tax code differ from those given by direct spending in a way that both de-racializes spending attitudes and changes the lens through which citizens evaluate the deservingness of beneficiaries. Through a series of survey experiments, we demonstrate that social benefits delivered through the tax code are less likely to activate racialized thinking than similar or identical benefits delivered directly. This is true, at least in part, because recipients of tax expenditures are perceived as more deserving than recipients of otherwise identical direct spending.

     

Safe as Houses? Conservative Social Policy,Public Opinion and Parliament

Social policy is of key importance to contemporary society, accounting for two thirds of public expenditure and, through provision such as the NHS, pensions, benefits, schools, universities and social care, touching on the lives of much of the population on a daily basis. It has also been one of the areas where the Conservative party have sought to change their image, and to some extent policies, under David Cameron. Drawing upon a range of evidence, including interviews with more than ten per cent of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, this article examines the potential challenges for a Conservative government of either stance, focusing on the extent of possible support for the Conservatives' approach to social policy amongst three key groups: the public, MPs, and members of the House of Lords.     

A Social Democratic Future? Political and Institutional Hurdles in Scotland

The Nordic model has long been admired in Scotland, and has featured prominently in aspects of the Scottish independence referendum debate. This article explores the difficulties in instituting a similar system here, identifying two significant barriers: the institutional setting (the powers available to Scottish politicians) and the partisan nature of competition between the two parties that might be able to deliver upon such a commitment. It concludes that the prospects of moving towards a Nordic‐style social investment model are slight, given the political, institutional and attitudinal barriers in place.     

Can EU Social Policy Save the Social Exclusion Unit and Vice Versa?

With the creation of the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU), the new Labour government signalled its concern with the problems of social exclusion. Unveiled as an innovative unit with a dynamic cross-departmental and holistic approach, the SEU quickly failed to meet the hopes of its supporters. Poorly resourced, passively supported by the prime minister, and ignoring the extensive experience of EU anti-exclusion policy, the SEU appears doomed to stagnate. However, if it was able to link to and learn from EU social policy, it could provide itself with a broader power base, more coherent policy approach, and strengthen 'Social Europe' as well.     

Democratic Values? A Racial Group-Based Analysis of Core Political Values,Partisanship, and Ideology

Research on American core political values, partisanship, and ideology often concludes that liberals and Democrats believe equality to be one of the most important values while conservatives and Republicans place greater emphasis on social order and moral traditionalism. Though these findings are valuable, it is assumed that they generalize across various groups (e.g. socioeconomic classes, religious groups, racial groups, etc.) in society. Focusing on racial groups in contemporary American politics, I challenge this assumption. More specifically, I argue that if individuals’ value preferences are formed during their pre-adult socialization years, and if the socialization process is different across racial groups, then it may be the case that members of different racial groups connect their value preferences to important political behaviors, including partisanship and ideology, in different ways as well. In the first part of this study, I fit a geometric model of value preferences to two different data sets—the first from 2010 and the second from 2002—and I show that although there is substantial value disagreement between white Democrats/liberals and Republicans/conservatives, that disagreement is smaller in Latinos and almost completely absent in African Americans. In the second part of this study, I demonstrate the political implications of these findings by estimating the effects of values on party and ideology, conditional on race. Results show that where whites’ value preferences affect their partisan and ideological group ties, the effects are smaller in Latinos and indistinguishable from zero in African Americans. I close by suggesting that scholars of values and political behavior ought to think in a more nuanced manner about how fundamental political cognitions relate to various attitudes and behaviors across different groups in society.     

Grammar Schools,a Policy of Social Mobility and Selection—Why?

Initially, four plausible reasons for introducing selection in secondary education are examined, three of which are irrelevant to contemporary debates about expanding grammar‐school education. These are: first, to ration education in less advanced economies; second, to increase the supply of skilled labour within an expanded national elite; third, as part of a ‘segmented’ system of education. A fourth—increasing upward social mobility—is open to two objections: first, the May government's proposals are so limited as to have little likely impact on mobility and, second, upward mobility in the twentieth century was possible only because of structural change in the British labour market, and that will probably not continue in this century. Finally, it is argued that attempts to select the ‘best’ in any activity or skill are necessarily highly imperfect, and are far less accurate than testing who does and does not meet some minimum level of competence.     

Changing Regulation and Governance of Finnish Energy Policy Making: New Rules but Old Elites?

Energy policy making is commonly seen as a sector dominated more by experts and technocrats than politicians. Regulation of Finnish energy policy, which was traditionally characterized by state‐centeredness and detailed governmental control, was step by step annulled in the mid‐1980s on, and a deregulation policy was introduced. The return of regulation can be timed to in the beginning of the twenty‐first century, being the result of the global debate and measures dealing with climate change. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which the changes of operational environment have transformed the power structure of Finnish energy policy making and whether the key actors constitute a coherent energy elite in terms of attitudinal unanimity and interaction networks. Methodologically the study was based on three sets of elite interview data collected in 1987, 1997, and 2009 and a postal survey conducted among the citizenry in 2007. The major finding was that despite fundamental changes in the operational environment the power structure of the energy sector policy making has been fairly stable from 1987 to 2009 and the old cohesive energy elite is still in power.     

Policy entrepreneurship and institutional change: Who,how, and why?

In the past three decades, “policy entrepreneurship” has emerged as a key analytical concept helping to explain institutional and policy change. Despite this, however, the literature on policy entrepreneurship remains theoretically vexed, producing limited theoretical knowledge or explanatory models able to draw firm conclusions. Theory building on policy and institutional change, for example, how policy entrepreneurs institute and navigate change agendas, using what tools, strategies, resources, and capacities remains opaque. This is especially the case in developing country contexts, where most analytical investigation of policy entrepreneurship has addressed “first world” case examples. This special issue seeks to address this analytical gap in the literature, focusing on cases specific to developing country contexts, deepening our empirical knowledge of policy entrepreneurship in developing countries, but also exploring theoretical and conceptual debates as they relate to developing countries.     

Social coalitions,political strategies,and German unification, 1990–1993

To explain recent dramatic fluctuations in Chancellor Kohl's reputation as a political leader, a social coalition approach is advanced as an alternative to psychological and structural perspectives. After noting that different social coalitions might have arisen in 1990 in support of alternative conceptions of unification, this article explores the role of policy‐making in the genesis of a national bloc. It then argues that this process of coalition formation in 1990 has had profound implications for subsequent policy‐making by impeding Kohl's prospect of forging new social bases of support for the ongoing process of unification.     

Who Sets Social Policy in Metropolis? Economic Positioning and Social Reform in Singapore*

Changes in social policy in Singapore reflect not only changing sociopolitical realities and popular attitudes, but also the island state's concerted effort to craft itself as a transnational hub, center for international business, and home-away-from-home for the skilled, moneyed cosmopolitans who drive the contemporary global political economy. Shifts in the de jure and de facto treatment of gays and lesbians provide a stark demonstration of these dynamics. This paper examines why the Singapore government has taken steps toward greater official tolerance of gays and lesbians, despite potential backlash and previous statements about Asian exceptionalism. It also considers how far the transnational environment and forces of globalization are likely to go in diminishing states' sovereignty in setting social policy—and how conversely empowering this diminution may be to certain (but not all) marginalized groups, who may find their appeals to transnational discourses, networks, and less culturally-relative identities increasingly validated as a result.     

Transnational Parliamentary Assemblies: A Remedy for the Democratic Deficit of International Governance?

While international governance may improve the legitimacy of its policies by producing better outputs, it reduces legitimacy on the input side as decisions are taken further away from the citizens. This article examines transnational parliamentary assemblies and assesses whether they might add legitimacy to decision-making beyond the state. While the parliamentary route to legitimacy is often belittled within the realm of international relations, many such assemblies already exist. The study gives an overview of such assemblies and compares the European Parliament, the Nordic Council and the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference in detail. They represent three types of transnational parliamentary assemblies: parliament, assembly and conference. The article reaches the conclusion that a parliament can further democratic legitimacy in supranational contexts, whereas assemblies can provide additional legitimacy to processes of international cooperation. The conference type does not fulfil the criteria set for democratic legitimacy.