The power of contact: Europe as a network of transnational attachment

In times of multiple crises and a looming partial breakup of the European Union, the question of what binds Europeans together appears more relevant than ever. This article proposes transnational attachment as a novel indicator of sense of community in Europe, arguing that this hitherto neglected dimension is substantially and structurally different from alternative ones such as cross‐border trust and identification. Combining Eurobarometer 73.3 data on ties between all EU‐27 countries with further dyadic data, it is shown empirically that the European network of transnational attachment has an asymmetric core‐periphery structure centred on five extremely popular countries (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain). In line with transactionalist theory, cross‐border mobility and communication are strongly related to transnational attachment. Furthermore, the article demonstrates that the network of transnational attachment is much denser among those with a higher level of education than among those with a lower level. The results suggest that offering European citizens incentives to travel to peripheral countries may help counterbalance the current asymmetric structure of transnational attachment, thereby increasing Europe's social cohesion.     

STRATEGY FORMATION IN PUBLIC AGENCIES

The main contribution of this study is the identification of three modes of strategy for public agencies based on strategic thought in a corporate environment. Strategic design, internal strategic scanning, and strategic governance embody three distinct modes of strategy relevant in the public sector. Programming actions, combining capabilities, and formation of networks capture the essence of these strategic orientations. By offering an organization‐based view of public sector strategy, this study puts public agencies at the centre of strategic examination. The fundamental unit of analysis within agencies is administrative duty, which connects administrative action with the democratic decision‐making process. These three strategy modes are based on complementary and, in some respects, contradictory theoretical assumptions, but all offer opportunities for confronting the diverse environments faced by public agencies. Each strategic orientation has a distinct approach to such features as the role of management, occupational groups, the environment, and types of capital.     

POWER AND INTERACTIVE POLICY‐MAKING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF POWER AND INFLUENCE IN 8 INTERACTIVE PROJECTS IN THE NETHERLANDS

A number of countries use forms of interactive policy‐making to increase the influence of citizens on decision making. Since there has also been an increase in citizen participation in The Netherlands over the last decade, in this paper, we provide a comparative analysis of 8 interactive projects initiated by the Dutch central government. The central aim of the paper is to understand processes of power in interactive policy‐making. We do so by raising two central questions: (1) how do power processes influence the setting‐up of a project, the negotiations within a project and the translation of the results of interactive projects into formal decision making circuits?; (2) to what extent and under what conditions do citizens and other stakeholders obtain influence in interactive projects, especially in defining problems, selecting solutions/instruments and realizing outcomes? Our findings show there is relatively little translation of the outcomes of the projects in regular decision making.     

THE EU COMITOLOGY SYSTEM: WHAT ROLE FOR THE COMMISSION?

The literature on comitology has largely ignored the European Commission's actual behaviour in the daily workings of the numerous comitology committees that were designed to control it. On the basis of survey data of Danish and Dutch representatives on nearly all comitology committees, this paper investigates the Commission's role in the system. We find that the Commission acts both as a mediator and as a policy advocate, but to varying degrees. We take a first step towards understanding this behaviour by an inspection of four arguments found in the literature on comitology and the Commission: the constraining or enabling impact of the comitology procedures; the institutional position of the responsible Directorate‐General; the nature of the cases dealt with by the committees and, finally, the intensity of the member states' preferences in relation to the committees' cases. In comitology, each of these arguments shapes the mediating or the advocating behaviour of the Commission.     

Reliability and validity of the 2002 and 2006 Chapel Hill expert surveys on party positioning

This research note reports on the 2002 and 2006 Chapel Hill expert surveys (CHES), which measure national party positioning on European integration, ideology, and several European Union (EU) and non‐EU policies. The reliability of expert judgments is examined and the CHES data are cross‐validated with data from the Comparative Manifesto Project, the 2003 Benoit‐Laver expert survey and the 2002 Rohrschneider‐Whitefield survey. The dataset is available on the CHES website.     

Economic development and democracy: An electoral connection

Scholars continue to debate whether economic development affects regime type. This article argues that a clear relationship exists between development and the electoral component of democracy, but not – or at least less so – between development and other components of broader understandings of democracy. This is so because development enhances the power resources of citizens and elections provide a focal point for collective action. The theory is tested with two new datasets – Varieties of Democracy and Lexical Index of Electoral Democracy – that allow us to disaggregate the concept of democracy into meso- and micro-level indicators. Results of these tests corroborate the theory: only election-centred indicators are robustly associated with economic development. This may help to account for apparent inconsistencies across extant studies and shed light on the mechanisms at work in a much-studied relationship. Further analysis shows that development affects electoral democracy by reducing electoral fraud, election violence and vote buying.     

The substitution of legislative power in Czechoslovak parliaments 1918–1992

SUMMARY

Lawmaking is the key power of modern legislative assemblies as representatives of the people. There are, however, some situations where the laws are approved by public authorities other than parliament or the legislature as a whole. Two basic types of these situations are delegation and substitution of legislative power. This article aims to present the development of legislative substitution, that is, law-making in place of parliament, when the latter is not able to legislate, such as during a state of emergency or at the end of a session, in modern Czechoslovak history. With the exception of specific periods in the history of the Czechoslovak Republic, namely after its foundation (1918–20) and during its restructuring (1945–46), all its constitutions regularly incorporated the substitution of representative assemblies as lawmakers. In institutional terms, legislative substitution was always ensured by a body created inside parliament. The permanent validity of measures taken instead of a law was conditional upon the additional approval of parliament. Changes were also experienced by other aspects of legislative substitution, for example initiation (until 1960 only by the government) and review-either political or constitutional, such as judicial, legislative power, delegation and substitution.     

Representation and governance in the Netherlands, 1250–1983: materials for a comprehensive history of politics

SUMMARY

Traditionally political history tells the factual story of those who are in power and of those who want to be, often accompanied by studies of the formal expressions of power in the state and its institutions. During the past two decades this ‘old’ history of politics has been renewed and enriched by research from the perspective of political culture. Both in the Netherlands and abroad pioneering studies of political practices, concepts and styles of leadership have resulted from this new approach. In the next few years this cultural angle in the history of politics will be intensified, for instance in research of the understanding and institutionalization of democracy. The recently established research programme ‘Representation and Governance in the Netherlands’ (RGN) at the Institute of Netherlands History wants to take on board this ‘new’ type of political history as well as the ‘old’ variety in order to facilitate both the efforts of those scholars who want to explain cultural traditions and inherited appreciations in the day-to-day routines of politics as well as the work of historians who want to intensify the study of the formation and reach of the state. The RGN project ventures far back through the ages to explore the historicity of political institutions and bureaucratic procedures by opening up materials for analysing both the culture of governance and the practices of politics. In projects that link up the Middle Ages with the twentieth century, from the administrative organization of the counties of Holland and Zeeland during the Hainault period up to and including the establishment and reform of the constitutional state, sources will be recorded and made accessible. The interaction between society and government, often personified by intermediaries such as office-holders, civil servants, journalists, political advisers and the like, will become visible in the many documents to be edited. Upon their publication these sources will enable future researchers to study not only the history of the governing bodies, but also the role that subjects or citizens played or wished to play in shaping the state.     

Political participation and three theories of democracy: A research inventory and agenda

Abstract.  This article proposes an agenda for political participation research aimed at providing empirical answers to questions derived from normative political theory. Based on a threefold distinction between responsive, participatory and deliberative models of democracy, the article first distinguishes three conceptions of political participation: as influencing attempts, as direct decision making, and as political discussion. Second, it is argued that each of the three models is associated with different desired consequences of political participation: equal protection of interests, self-development and subjective legitimacy. Third, a procedural standard is identified from which to evaluate the mechanism generating the three types of participation. By analogy with theories of distributive justice, this mechanism should be sensitive to incentives but insensitive to resources. The empirical questions thus implied are finally drawn together into an integrated agenda for future participation studies.