CENTRALIZATION, DECENTRALIZATION AND THE EUROPEAN UNION: THE DYNAMICS OF TRIADIC RELATIONSHIPS

The accession of the UK into the European Community in 1973 and the growth in power and competence of European institutions in subsequent years prompts a rethink of relationships between central and local governance. Rather than a dyadic process between two sets of bodies, the new triadic system is based on varying interactions between the three groups of actors at each level. The article develops six possible scenarios of new relationships which can be simplified into centralization, no change or decentralization. To appraise the nature of the changes, the article examines the operation of the European Regional Development Fund, the additionality controversy, lobbying over the 1994 reform of the structural funds and aspects of environmental regulation. Rather than one scenario dominating, the findings show several types of new relationships emerging.     

THE ROLE OF PUBLIC CAPITAL IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

This paper reviews the evidence of public infrastructure's impact on economic development. The evidence indicates the marginal net social returns is low. The paper also examines the effect of economic, demographic, and political forces on infrastructure investment. Finally, the literature suggests that improving maintenance and reducing congestion can greatly increase the benefits from the existing public capital stock.     

EXPLORING CENTRAL GOVERNMENTS' COORDINATION OF EUROPEAN UNION AFFAIRS

This study explores the coordination mechanisms managed by the central governments of the European Union (EU) in order to develop negotiation positions for their plenipotentiaries in the Council. Utilizing novel data from an expert survey, the first part examines the relationships within and between the structures and processes of EU coordination, the actors involved, and the mechanisms' efficacy. The analysis shows that highly formalized coordination mechanisms are associated with developing timely, clear and consistent negotiation positions. The second part allocates the 28 member states' EU coordination mechanisms into different clusters, including unicentric, pluricentric, decentric, proactive, reactive, politicized, depoliticized, high efficacy and low efficacy. Intriguing differences are identified, such as the fact that the Central and Eastern European member states' mechanisms are typically more reactive where coordination centres on the national capital and the Council negotiations.     

IDENTIFYING CAUSALITY IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: THE ADAPTATION OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR WALES TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

The aim of this article is to identify causes and effects of public institutional change. Analysis is centred on those endogenous, not exogenous, sources of political change that account for the institutional metamorphosis of the Welsh Assembly in its engagement with UK‐EU processes since 1999. The central research question addressed is to explain a qualitative shift in the logic of action of Assembly engagement, resulting in the conduct of a territorially sensitive ‘parliamentary’ EU scrutiny, but within a model of executive devolution. To capture agency and change, and to engage with sociological institutionalist debates, the article develops analytical tools of ‘framing’ and ‘operationalizing’ institutions to study the interplay between informal and formal processes of institution building since devolution. In so doing, we place refined sociological conceptions of institutions at the heart of analyses of political discontinuity and theorization of public institutional change.     

ORGANIZING THE CORE EXECUTIVE FOR EUROPEAN UNION AFFAIRS: COMPARING FINLAND AND SWEDEN

Examining core executive organization for EU affairs in Finland and Sweden, this article uncovers how change agents used European integration deliberately to strengthen their role in the domestic settings through taking control of EU policy co‐ordination. In both countries, EU membership was an exogenous factor that enabled the offices of the PM to secure a more powerful position and advance their own institutional agendas. This strengthened their leadership role and weakened the respective foreign ministries, whose legitimacy in EU co‐ordination was undermined by the discourse that matters pertaining to this co‐ordination should be treated as domestic policy instead of foreign policy. This discourse proved instrumental in the organizational reforms and core executive restructuring. Both countries also provide evidence of intra‐Nordic organizational learning since the Finnish co‐ordination system was based on lessons drawn from Denmark whereas the subsequent Swedish reform was inspired and legitimized by changes in Finland.     

IS THE TREATY OF MAASTRICHT AN ADEQUATE‘CONSTITUTION’FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION?

This article explores the likely impact of the Treaty of Maastricht on the institutional balance of the European Community and the new European Union. It places particular emphasis on the impact of the Treaty on the role of the European Court of Justice, an institution which has been generally ignored by political scientists. However, it does not accept the received wisdom of legal scholars concerning the Court, which suggests that the Court, acting on its own has saved the Community from self-destruction. Instead, the analysis presented here places the Court in a political context. On the basis of this understanding, the potential of the Treaty of Maastricht to unravel some of the existing structure of the European Community is drawn out.     

AN INFORMATION PROCESSING PERSPECTIVE ON DECISION MAKING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Two decades after the introduction of the punctuated equilibrium model, information processing theory now offers one of the most comprehensive analytical perspectives on decision making in public administration and policy research. This article applies information processing analysis to the decision making process in the European Union (EU). Towards this end, the article inquires into the organizational foundations of information processing at successive levels of administrative and legislative decision making and shows how this analytical perspective can be used to gain a better understanding of policy dynamics at the supranational level. The article argues that information processing in the EU is likely to produce distinct policy dynamics in key respects. It identifies promising avenues for future research and discusses some of the issues this evolving theoretical framework should address in order to allow for a more comprehensive exploration of this analytical perspective in the context of the EU.     

PRESCRIPTIONS FOR REGIONAL ECONOMIC DILEMMAS: UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF THINK TANKS IN THE GOVERNANCE OF REGIONAL POLICY

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the role of think tanks in the governance of regional policy. The paper critically reviews a series of reports by United Kingdom (UK) based think tanks, published between 2002 and 2008, a period of interest on the part of national government in the most appropriate configuration of subnational governance. Policy transfer and the role of ideas in regional policy provide the framework for analysis. The interpretation of the findings suggests that the think tanks considered are largely products of national policy debate and party politics in the United Kingdom, despite efforts to devolve power. This is surprising given debates about the influence of European Union regional funding on UK regional policy, seen as a prime example of multi‐level governance.     

THE SPATIAL LEGACY OF INFORMAL EMPIRE: OIL,THE SOVIET UNION,AND THE CONTOURS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA'S FAR WEST

Abstract

Beginning in the 1930s, Soviet geologists, engineers, and economic planners began laying the infrastructure of informal empire in China's westernmost province of Xinjiang. Seeking to gain access to its rich petroleum wealth in particular, these Soviet state agents helped create a blueprint for state investment and development in Xinjiang that continues to resonate today. Confronting the substantial Soviet investment in the province and driven by a border policy intent on minimizing capital expenditures for distant peripheries, economic planners in the Republic of China and the People's Republic alike relied heavily on Soviet reports, technology, and infrastructure in their own economic development plans. In the end, the efforts of Chinese and Soviet planners, often working in collaboration, helped create an enduring pattern of state investment in Xinjiang. Focusing on oil extraction, processing, and transport operations in Xinjiang, this work reveals the long-term resonances of informal empire in Chinese border regions.     

THE LIMITS OF JOINED-UP GOVERNMENT: TOWARDS A POLITICAL ANALYSIS

Joined-up government has featured prominently on the agenda of the New Labour government in the UK. However, the politics of joining-up remain under-explored, with disproportionate emphasis on the technical and managerial dimensions of the challenge. This paper argues that political value conflicts form an essential part of the explanation for the replication of 'silos' within city strategic partnerships, the joining-up institution of choice at the local scale. A study of the local politics of social inclusion in the British cities of Dundee and Hull revealed a strong partnership ethos. However, this ethos sustained only a shallow consensus over abstract goals, at the same time legitimating the avoidance of political value conflicts. Thematic partnerships comprising interest group clusters with different political values therefore tended to replicate silo practices. The paper argues, consequently, that the consensual partnership ethos caused the displacement of value conflicts, in turn causing fragmented governance. It concludes with three propositions for further research.     

EU LEGISLATION AND NATIONAL REGULATION: UNCERTAIN STEPS TOWARDS A EUROPEAN PUBLIC POLICY

The EU with its supranational powers is a unique institution. Contrary to other international organizations, it can make laws that are binding to its member governments as well as to their citizens and enterprises. However, reviewing the literature, we find little consensus as to its true role as a lawmaker. This article and the articles that follow in this symposium remedy this empirical deficiency. The present article presents a comprehensive analysis of the scope of binding EU regulation. The EU is presented as an important lawmaker. It has, with considerable effectiveness, been able to overcome recurrent crises that have often called its very viability into question. But the same analysis also reveals that the EU, in spite of several treaty reforms expanding its responsibilities into new policy areas, remains a predominantly economic regulator. Finally, EU lawmaking is to an increasing extent delegated to the European Commission, dedicated to the de facto task of maintaining the internal market. Although this article and the articles that follow it cover the present, and refer to the European Union (EU), the EU, since its creation in the 1950s, has changed its official name several times.     

THE EUROPEAN UNION ‘MODEL’ AND ADMINISTRATIVE CO‐OPERATION: THE CASE OF NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

This article examines the relevance of the European Union (EU) model of governance in explaining the innovative administrative arrangements established by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the North‐South Ministerial Council (NSMC), and in particular its joint secretariat. The first section of the article sets out five models of the EU that may be applied to the NSMC. The second section provides an overview of the cross‐border relationship until 1998 and the third section examines the administrative relationship since 1998. In conclusion, the similarities between the NSMC secretariat and the open coordination model of the EU are highlighted.