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This paper aims to present a heuristically useful model to analyse the European political cooperation. It is observed that the convergence between the theoretical fields of European Studies and International Relations since the 1990's enabled a greater understanding of political integration not only in Europe. This progressive theoretical convergence in both fields allows the ontological generalization of premises to the development of an analytical model for the study of political integration. In this sense, by outlining a heuristically model to analyse the European political cooperation, this paper offers the first step to observe similarities and differences between political integration processes beyond Europe. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The aim of the paper is to advance the understanding of the interface between organised interests and the legislative work of committees within the European Parliament. Hitherto the frontier of academic research has been the establishment of which categories of organised interests have the greatest committee access. This has stopped short of making a direct link between access and the EP's legislative output. This paper directly contributes to overcoming this disjuncture. Through ninety-four interviews with actively participating organised interests, a clear picture of their optimal strategies emerged. The next phase was to evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy and thereafter establish the extent to which the optimal approach was reflected in actual behaviour. Here the analysis of committee stage amendments was combined with interview data. The results indicate that interests correctly identify the optimal strategy but the quality of their informational message structured the extent to which they were able to adhere to its prescription. The 'quality threshold' is informally applied by a group of influential committee members on behalf of the wider committee. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the concept ‘interiorization’ (Poulantzas, 1974)provides us with a subtler understanding of the interrelated spatial fixesof the contemporary IPE that overcomes the more or less Kautskian/Leninistand Supranational/Intergovernmental dualisms that continue to characterisethe field. With regards to the economic structure, the concept allows usto grasp how it is possible for European capitalism to be subsumeddirectly within the social relations of US capitalism whilst stillmaintaining independent bases of competition. With regards topolitico-ideological structures, the concept allows us to understand why atransnational neo-liberal hegemony at the same time is a distinctly UShegemony, whereby the US state increasingly displaces externalities on therest of the world, including Europe, without this undermining theconsensual aspects of transnational relations. In a concluding section,the paper also demonstrates that the concept of interiorization is centralto the (terminal?) crisis of European social democracy: A Europeanbourgeoisie ‘interiorized’ with American capital is increasingly alienatedfrom European social formations and as a result is not amenable to theclass compromises which social democracy presupposes. This in turnundermines the capacity of social democracy to perform a ‘politics ofmediation’ over a wide range of cleavage structures. This undermining isdangerous as it has been essential to the very essence of European (socialand Christian) democracy in the post World War II period (cf. vanKersbergen, 1995). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is essentially a comparison of the relative levels of pro-environmental public policy across several European states. Unlike previous studies, however, this treatment extends far beyond the current boundaries of the European Union (EU) to incorporate several Eastern European and Post-Soviet societies. Key to this analysis is a measure of the relative strength or weakness of the Green Party within those nations? respective electoral and governmental systems. The overall objective of the study is to see if the presence of a strong Green Party has had a positive effect on increasing the level of environmental-friendliness, and if stronger parties?or stronger public support for such parties?lead to higher levels of environmental-friendliness; therefore producing greater enactment of pro-environmental public policies. However, other variables?including institutional measures, economic measures, and energy consumption measures?will also be considered, in order to gain a better understanding of the true causal effects underlying positive and negative environmental public policy outputs. Our hypothesis is that the greater the level of Green Party electoral support, and representation in government, the more ?environmentally-friendly? a nation will be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem this paper will try to focalise in my paper, what is trying to answer this question: can be cultural heritage an opportunity to build Europe? A matter of great relevance in a moment of tremendous crisis of Europe as a political and above all financial and economic institution. What was the Europe in the idea of the Founding Fathers, and all the most important political parties and also non institutional subjects had been working around during the period after the end of the second world war, looks today affected by a tremendous crisis, a very great decline, involving not only the economic aspects, but also the political, social and cultural ones. We are today, we could say, in front of the very concrete risk of the death of Europe because of its weakness and almost absence from a political and in particular cultural point of view. So to reflect about cultural heritage in Europe and of Europe means to reflect about the real identity, the past, the present, and above all the future of Europe. The subject will be developed along three main topics, both at a methodological level and at a level of contents: • A problem of definition and methodology, developed along the introductive part, trying to answer the question: what is cultural heritage and what we exactly mean using this category of analysis, and also what was its evolution along time? • What were the different approaches to management of cultural heritage, for tutelage and valorization, in Europe, and especially, till 1989-1990, in the two main different areas of Europe: the Western and Eastern part; • What was and what could become the role of Europe? What are risks and opportunities Europe offers from this particular point of view? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the semantic and conceptual ambiguity in the literature on "bureaucratic autonomy," we create a nomological map and a new measurement tool for the concept. In doing so, we draw on the diverse definitions, conceptualizations, and measurement strategies found in the scholarship on state autonomy (eg.., Evans et al 1985), the formal literature on bureaucratic discretion and regulatory independence (e.g., Hammond/Knott 1996; Levy/Spiller 1996), and historical case studies from American and European politics (e.g., Carpenter 2001; Verhoest et al 2004). We elucidate the origins of the idea of bureaucratic autonomy in the notion of "state autonomy versus society," and trace its use and meaning as the concept has evolved over time. We analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each literature's approach to the issues of preference formation and enactment of desired policies, and draw upon common strands to synthesize a unified definition and measurement strategy. The paper also situates bureaucratic autonomy in relation to related concepts like bureaucratic discretion, policy insulation, and political control. The end result is a cumulative measurement index useful for scholars conducting both theoretical and empirical work. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legislative speeches are an important part of parliamentary activity in the European Parliament. This paper presents new data on the allocation of speaking time in the EP, including a new survey of European party groups and a statistical analysis of speeches during the 5th European Parliament (1999-2004). Contrary to common assumptions in the EP literature, our findings suggest that party groups do not punish dissenters by limiting their speaking time on the floor despite their formal power to do so. Instead, party mavericks take the floor significantly more often than party faithfuls. We argue that there is an institutional explanation of parliamentary debates. Speaking time actually serves as a communication outlet for dissenting MEPs to put the reasons for their defection on the public record, in particular when there is a conflict between the national party and the European political group. The electoral disconnection between European party groups and the European electorate does not motivate the groups to prevent those dissenters from taking the floor. It does not matter whether dissenters denigrate the party label as this has little effect on the party's prospects as a whole. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An exploration of the current state of European integration through the lens of a concept called Entitativity, which exams common origin and common goal as a means to assess group awareness and group agency; the paper focuses on European defense. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

.This paper investigates the effects of referendums on news coverage of the European Constitutional Treaty (ECT) and on the emergence of a trans-national media discourse. In order to do so it draws on the content analysis of sixteen daily newspapers from France, Spain, Italy and Britain. Results show that referendums affected both the visibility of the ECT and the quality of coverage. They also suggest that by increasing the salience of EU issues, referendums can lead to the development of a trans-national public sphere. The 'domesticisation' of EU affairs and the 'polarisation' of political elites at referendum time are examined as possible explanations for these patterns. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geography can play a fundamental role in international relations yet scholarship often ignores or downplays geography as a determinant factor. In an effort to redress this common oversight, this paper utilizes geographical-based theories to demonstrate how geography influences international politics. The specific case study is the geography of Central and Eastern Europe and how its geography effects the European Union's decision on eastward institutional enlargement. Due to five geographic features, topography, size, location, climate, and natural resources, the EU is compelled to enlarge its institutional reach into Central and Eastern Europe. This region is, as political-geographers have described, a "shatterbelt" or "crush zone" noted for being an area of friction between two outside power centers: Western Europe and Russia. The geographic features of CEE endow countries in the region with the characteristic of having difficulty maintaining political and economic sovereignty. This quality promotes foreign incursions into the region for the sake of enhancing security and increasing the political leverage of any institution, national or supranational, that has direct or indirect control of the region. In sum, geography-based political theories can help explain part of the impetus to enlarge. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Giuseppe Mazzini, the inspirational leader of the Italian anti-imperialist struggle for national independence, ranked among the most influential European public figures of the mid-19th century. He also made a seminal contribution to the development of modern liberal internationalist thought. Yet Mazzini has largely fallen into oblivion today among international relations scholars and political theorists. Contemporary IR scholars sometimes mention him en passant along with figures such as Immanuel Kant, J.S. Mill and Richard Cobden, usually to contrast his putative “messianic” interventionism with the more prudent internationalism of the latter. The principal aim of this paper is to show how this reading of Mazzini’s international theory â€" based on patchy translations and incomplete English editions of his writings - is fundamentally incorrect. Mazzini dismissed the possibility of imposed “regime change” on moral grounds. He also anticipated J.S. Mill’s consequentialist critique of imposed regime change, insisting that democracy thus achieved could hardly be sustained and would indeed soon relapse into anarchy or dictatorship. The relevance of Mazzini’s writings to contemporary US foreign policy and broader questions of international relations theory warrants a systematic reappraisal of his arguments. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As NATO has evolved since the early 1990s, taking on new roles, new members, and new partners, its identity has grown more complex and multi-facted and its future dependent on a growing number of variables. Even among NATO optimists, explanations of NATO's persistence vary dramatically depending on which of NATO's multiple identities is the subject of examination---a choice generally influenced by the theoretical bias of the analyst. This paper will explain NATO's persistence from liberal and constructivist perspectives. It argues that examining NATO's evolution principally from a realist perspective ignores the alliance's vital role as both a force for democratization and a tool for shaping state preferences within Europe and increasingly beyond it, as NATO enlarges the scope of its partnership programs to include the Middle East and Asia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern international system, which forms the foundation of the discipline of international relations, was the contingent outcome of a transformation that took place in early modern Europe. This transformation involved a shift from medieval heteronomous organization among widely varying actors to modern anarchy among sovereign territorial states. This paper examines the profound effect that the "cartographic revolution" had on the nature of sovereign authority in the international system, and thus on the development of modern states and the state system. The argument is that the growth of mapping in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuriesâ??along with the widespread adoption of maps and atlases as printed media among both elites and larger audiencesâ??had direct effects on ideas about legitimate types of authority over space. These ideas form the basis of an international system. In particular, mapping constrained the acceptable forms of authority down to one: exclusive sovereignty over territory. This was due to the fact that maps were unable to depict any other type of political control. Mapping, therefore, provided the ideational foundations for the shift from the late medieval variety of types of authority (territorial, personal, and jurisdictional) to the modern uniformity of a single conception of authority, based on territorial exclusivity represented in the political cartography of clearly delineated states.This historical study yields implications for today's globalizing international system, including the possibility that new technologies of spatial representation may re-open the prospect of non-territorial sovereignty in the future. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a six-country comparative panel study experiment with 1197 participants, and focusing on the European example, this paper shows how in the long term, political institutions and the media can change the political identity of citizens. It does not only show that exposure to good or bad news on Europe and to symbols of the European Union have an effect on European identity, but also that news works as a 'time bomb'. It suggests that while increasingly cynical European citizens first 'resist' attempts of political manipulation, this effect ultimately kicks in later and influences citizens' European identity in the long term. The 2 ½ year-long study demonstrates this 'time bomb' effect of news as well as an immediate but growing effect of political symbols on citizens' identity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explain inter-state variation in non-compliance with European law. While noncompliance has not significantly increased over time, some member states violate European law more frequently than others. In order to account for the variance observed, we draw on three prominent approaches in the compliance literature - enforcement, management, and legitimacy. In the first place, we develop a set of hypotheses for each of the three theories. We then discuss how they can be combined in theoretically consistent ways and develop three integrated models. Finally, we empirically test these models drawing on a unique and comprehensive dataset, which comprises more than 6,300 instances of member state non-compliance with European law between 1978 and 1999. The empirical findings show that the combined model of the enforcement and the management approach turns out to have the highest explanatory power. Politically powerful member states are most likely to violate European law while the best compliers are small countries with highly efficient bureaucracies. Yet, administrative capacity also matters for powerful member states. The UK and Germany are much more compliant than France and Italy, which command similar political power but whose administrations are ridden by bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control over government portfolios is the key to power over policy and patronage and is commonly understood to lie with parties in European democracies. But since the democratic transitions of the 1990s, Europe has had nearly equal numbers of parliamentary and semi-presidential regimes, and there is evidence that the ability of parties to control government posts in these two regime types differs. As yet, political scientists have a limited understanding of the scale and causes of these differences. In this paper we propose a principal-agent theoretical explanation. We examine our account using data on 28 parliamentary and semi-presidential democracies in Europe, and show that differences in party control over government portfolios cannot be understood without reference to the underlying principal-agent relationships between voters, elected politicians, and governments, that characterize Europe's semi-presidential and parliamentary regimes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I evaluate whether regional citizens are more likely to support greater autonomy because they find the idea of an independent region within Europe to be more viable. The devolution referenda in Scotland in two distinct time periods provide a quasi-experiment in which to explore this observable implication. In the first referendum, a slight majority voted for devolution but the margin was not enough to overcome the electoral threshold set by Westminster. In 1997, though, the result was overwhelmingly pro-devolution. I argue that the fear of independence, coupled with a preference ordering where the second choice for devolution supporters was the status quo, explained the strategic voting behavior in 1979. Increased support for independence, as both a first and second option for Scots, fuelled the dramatic increase in sincere voting for devolution in 1997. I also presented evidence to support the contention that European integration, especially the Scottish National Party's successful framing of the EU as a mechanism to reduce the costs of secession, contributed to this increase in support for independence. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

You might think that the politics of conditionality in Europe are straightforward, that states want to proffer human rights abroad and therefore create rules designed to do so. However, they are not nearly so linear. Instead, overlapping and nested institutions shape the EU's politics of human rights conditionality by encouraging political opportunism that affects negotiations and implementation. The European Union (EU) is nested within the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as within the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). EU Member States belong to an overlapping regional regime governed by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as well as a global human rights regime governed by the United Nations (UN). The EU's location within these regimes, combined with its drive to promote respect for human rights in other countries, is transforming the politics of repression around the world. And the EU is pushing its agenda one state at a time through the use of regional trade agreements (RTAs). This paper explores how nested and overlapping institutions shape the EU's politics of human rights conditionality by encouraging political opportunism. It argues that nesting and overlap create incentives for actors (1) to choose venues that allow them to get what they want, circumventing the rules they do not like; (2) to choose venues that allow them to challenge the rules they do not like and to gain personal power;(3) to invoke venues 'a la carte' to best legitimize their contentious actions, relying upon a particular venue to govern a specific issue but not others; and (4) to flip-flop between venues when their interests in implementation change. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the extent and duration of democratic politics in postcommunist Europe, paying particular attention to the possible impact of the European Union. It concludes with a brief discussion of why it is that the postcommunist democracies that are now members of the EU or soon-to-be members register such high levels of dissatisfaction with the way democracy works and distrust of government, parliament, and political parties. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about a postfunctionalist theory of European integration is presented. It summarizes research on political parties, public opinion and identity to explain the conflicts that have structured European tradition. The resulting theory is subscribed as postfunctionalist because the term reflects the agnosticism concerning whether jurisdictions that humans create are efficient. The two most influential theories of regional integration, which are neofunctionalism and intergovernmentalism, are summarized.

Examines the sources of variation in local government transparency in the wake of externally mandated decentralization in post-Communist Europe. Traditional measures of decentralization; Theories of local government transparency.

The article presents a study which examines the representation of politics at different levels of political decision making in Europe. A comparison between regional and statewide elections is provided. The interaction between the regional and the national levels of political decision making is explored.

The Union of European Football (Soccer) Associations is geographically, culturally, politically, and economically a much broader array of countries than the European Union. Russia, Israel, and Turkey, for example, are members of UEFA but not the EU. This raises two questions: First, why are so many more peoples and countries considered European in terms of soccer (UEFA) but not politics and economics (EU)? Second, what would the EU be like if its membership was the same as UEFA's? Using EUFA’s borders as a theoretical maximum definition of Europe may offer new insight into the pressing questions of EU expansion. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data on coalition governments in 13 European countries, I demonstrate that the institutional arrangements affect portfolio allocations. In particular, the investiture vote promotes the formateur advantage, while bicameralism obstructs it. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a veto players model, we evaluate how international actors and the cohesion of political parties affect policy production in Europe. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we reconcile the transparent and inclusive Constitution-making process with the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty? I argue that even though the communicative channels were opened to encourage participation, they were not utilized because of the absence a European public sphere (EPS). Stressing that the concept of public sphere only became relevant owing to the functions it performs to make democracy possible, I demonstrate that an EPS never emerged to allow the Europe-wide public use of reason. The findings of this article, namely that the absence of the EPS deprived citizens of the right to meaningfully participate in the Constitution-making process, have far-reaching implications for the future of the Union. The ratification of the Treaty will not be the last challenge of its kind. Unless the importance of the EPS is taken seriously, the perpetuating elite-citizen gap will result in the same mistake to be repeated time and again. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the robustness of results based on the employment of two configurational comparative methods, crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and fuzzy-set QCA. A background of QCA as a technique that has been refined with multi-value and fuzzy-set extensions in social science studies is presented. Data and theoretical model from a major research project on the conditions of authoritarianism and democracy in interwar Europe were used in analyzing the logic of QCA.

This article explores the dimensions and determinants of Europeanness of political and economic elites in Europe. It discusses the perception of European integration and unification as an elite project. It suggests that Europeanness has an emotive, a cognitive-evaluative and a projective dimension. It adds that agreement and consent are expected to be based on shared affection for and approval of Europe's unity and its further integration.

The article explains the variation in the sacralization of politics in modern Europe. Two indices are presented that summarize church activity in several critical domains where Christian churches might be expected to try to influence politics, such as abortion and divorce. The variation in sacralization focuses on the supply of alternatives on offer in the religious marketplace and on the popular demand for politically salient religion. It advances an account that emphasizes the fusion of nation and religion as the key factor behind sacralization.

The article explores the opportunities and constraints of European Union (EU) agenda-setting in the negotiations between the EU and South Africa using an adaptation of Robert Putnam's two- (extended to three-) level game model. It provides an outline of the negotiations leading to the Trade, Development and Co-operation Agreement (TDCA). It details the strengths and weaknesses of using the adapted version of the three-level game model.