Worlds of compliance: Why leading approaches to European Union implementation are only 'sometimes-true theories'

Abstract.  This article summarises the main theoretical findings of a large-scale qualitative project on the transposition, enforcement and application of six European Union labour law Directives in 15 Member States. Focusing on the transposition stage, its argument starts from a theoretical puzzle: When confronting the empirical results from the 91 cases covered in the article with the various hypotheses derived from the literature, it turns out that all causal conditions suggested by existing theories, and even two of the most prominent hypotheses (on misfit and veto players), have at best rather weak explanatory power. On closer inspection, these qualitative studies show that even their basic rationale does not hold in some groups of countries. As a solution, this article offers a typology of three worlds of compliance, each of which is characterised by an ideal-typical transposition style: a 'world of law observance', a 'world of domestic politics' and a 'world of transposition neglect'. This typology provides the key to understanding when and how individual theoretical propositions are relevant.     

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN UGANDA: THE NEW APPROACH

The article examines the constitution-making process in Uganda,from the days when Museveni's National Resistance Movement conductedits guerrilla campaign, declaring its intention to re-establishdemocracy with a new constitution. It considered that Uganda'scycle of violence in the past sprang from the lack of a goodconstitution and much store was placed on constitutionalismas a panacea. Accordingly, a constitutional commission was setup to consult the people and make proposals for a new constitution.The article examines how far this was a genuine attempt to consultwidely, or whether the government ‘guidelines’ wereintended to steer the discussion along pre-determined lines,and at a deliberately slow pace. The constitution itself isseen to contain some valuable improvements on previous constitutionsbut also to safeguard and preserve the existing ideology ofthe National Resistance Movement as far as possible.     

FAMILY VIOLENCE,TELEVISION VIEWING HABITS,AND OTHER ADOLESCENT EXPERIENCES RELATED TO VIOLENT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR*

This study employs multivariate analyses with retrospective self-report data to assess the relative importance of certain childhood and adolescent experiences to the commission of violent crimes as an adult. Specifically, the relationship is examined between violent criminal behavior and exposure to family violence, exposure to television violence, school performance, other adolescent activities, and differential reinforcement for previous illegal acts. The exploratory model is based on data collected on 100 male inmates incarcerated for violent crimes and 65 nonincarcerated, nonviolent males matched in terms of age, race, and neighborhood. Findings, from analyses which estimate both additive and interactive effects, indicate that the background experiences associated with violent crime vary depending upon an individual's race. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for further research on the causes of violent criminal behavior.     

DOES POLITICAL CHANGE AFFECT SENIOR MANAGEMENT TURNOVER? AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF TOP‐TIER LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN ENGLAND

In many political systems the political neutrality of senior managers' tenure is often cherished as a key part of the politics-administration dichotomy and is subject to formal safeguards. We test hypotheses about the impact of political change on senior management turnover drawn from political science, public administration and private sector management theory. Using panel data to control for unobserved heterogeneity between authorities, we find that changes in political party control and low organizational performance have both separate and joint positive effects on the turnover rate of senior managers. By contrast, the most senior manager, the chief executive, is more sheltered: the likelihood of a chief executive succession is higher only when party change and low performance occur together. Thus the arrival of a new ruling party reduces the tenure of senior managers, but chief executives are vulnerable to political change only when performance is perceived as weak.