Political Economy Egan, Michelle
Research Agendas in EU Studies
Book Chapter
The literature on the political economy of European integration is vast and crosses different disciplines. Scholars have sought, both theoretically and empirically, to capture the type, sequence and ...pace of economic integration.2 Each debate surrounding the political economy of European integration is anchored in a particular intellectual paradigm.3 While we have conceptual and theoretical explanations about the processes and outcomes of integration drawn from international relations and comparative politics,4 the political economy literature has contributed the economics of information, transaction cost theory, principal-agent approaches, historical economy and bounded rationality to our understanding of how economic institutions change and evolve in seeking to coordinate national economies at the regional level. Recent emphasis has been placed upon the political and economic consequences of the choice of institutions, and upon the politics of institutional design (Scharpf, 1988; Weingast, 1995; Tsebelis, 2004). Some scholars argue that the consolidation of the market is characterized by incremental change and evolution, while others argue that the process is one of punctuated equilibrium (North, 1990). Much work has also focused on the role of interests, drawing on the differential ability of actors to solve their collective action problems at the European level, not least by building coalitions in which concentrated interests rather than diffuse interests have shaped European policy outcomes (Frieden, 1991; Weber and Hallerberg, 2001; Woll, 2008).
The establishment of environmental management systems is part of the shift away from command and control policies to more flexible policy instruments, giving firms more scope to decide for themselves ...what the best practicable options are. As a result of this 'shared responsibility' between public and private actors in environmental issues, the development of environmental management systems is a good example of a policy network with a core group of actors involved in shaping the environmental agenda. This article investigates the role of policy networks in developing the British environmental management standard (BS 7750) and the European Union eco-management audit (EMAS). The policy network approach is useful in isolating the role of a diverse range of actors and their impact on the EU policy process. The history of environmental management standards suggests that key actors in the negotiations process are found at different levels of the EU process, ranging from the national to the global. This indicates a multi-level governance process that substantially influences EU outcomes.
We describe a patient in whom newborn immunoreactive trypsin screening and mutation analysis suggested a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis; however, the clinical course and sweat test results were not ...consistent with the diagnosis. Direct sequencing of the patient's genomic DNA showed compound heterozygosity for ΔF508 and F508C, a polymorphism not associated with clinical disease. (J Pediatr 1997;130:658-60)
This paper examines the role of the European Union (EU) in advancing the position of women in the European policy arena. While the European Commission and the European Court of Justice have fostered ...the rights of working women, forcing major revisions in national practice, the EU has defined women's issues narrowly in terms of equal pay and sex discrimination. The EU is unlikely to address some of the major indirect forms of discrimination, such as unpaid labor and job segregation, as the combination of recession and diversity of labor regimes will make it difficult for the EU to reach a consensus among its member states. Advancing women's rights in the EU has always been hindered by the difficulties of collective action among the diverse women's networks that exist at the national level. Despite the increased visibility and attention given to women's rights at the international level in the last decade, women's issues face new constraints in Europe. The post-Maastricht backlash has led member states to reign in EU activism and the Court has responded to this political signal, which has major implications for advancing women's issues at the pan-European level.
This dissertation focuses on the conditions under which and the ways in which the European Community has constructed an internal market. As the most important and ambitious effort of the post-war ...period to reduce national trade barriers, the experience of the European Community illustrates the close relationship between regulatory and trade policies. In order to create a single market, the European Community has sought to limit the ability of its member states to exercise regulatory sovereignty. With increased economic integration, the differences in regulatory policies, formerly neglected, have been exposed to intense scrutiny as disparities in regulation can hinder market access and restrict competition. The dissertation draws on contemporary theories of institutional choice and political economy to illustrate the importance of rules in shaping markets. My central thesis is that the relationship between governments and markets can only be understood by recognising that a market is not organised by itself, but always operates within a political framework that provides the rules of the game. Neither traditional economic or political theories of integration have focused on the institutional conditions, nor the regulatory strategies that the EC has used to construct and maintain an integrated market. The empirical analysis traces efforts to integrate divergent national standards and regulations, which are amongst the most intractable trade barriers that firms face in Europe. The research from 1958-1994 demonstrates that different regulatory strategies to reduce the "costs of non-Europe" have met with mixed success. What regulatory reform that has been achieved would not have been possible without the crucial role of law. The European Court of Justice played a critical role in influencing the nature and level of regulation, and in doing so determined the balance between integration and diversity. Recognising the mismatch between its policy objectives and outcomes, the EC has sought to delegate regulatory functions to the private sector. Allowing finns to set common European standards for market access has however led to unintended consequences. Drawing on principal-agent theory, the problem of delegation raises broader concerns about representation and participation, distribution and allocation of resources and political and administrative efficiency in using firms to shape the rules necessary for constructing a single market.
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