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Administrative traditions have become a central concept in public policy and public administration research. Despite substantial insights gained, it is still unclear how administrative traditions affect the effectiveness of public policies. This paper addresses this shortcoming. It analyzes whether the effectiveness of a specific type of public policy, namely direct regulation, varies by a country's administrative tradition. Empirically, the focus is on regulations in the area of environmental protection. By analyzing the changes in air pollutant emissions of 14 OECD countries over a period of 25 years, the article finds that the effectiveness of environmental regulations is higher in countries with a managerial administrative tradition. While both managerial and legalistic bureaucracies can successfully implement minor policy reforms, it is primarily managerial systems that can effectively handle more ambitious regulations. Overall, it thus seems that a major benefit of managerial systems is the more flexible approach towards policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore the determinants of reforms intending to integrate policies and coordinate administrative units by focusing on necessary conditions. Firstly, we elaborate theoretical expectations about potential necessary conditions for cross-sectoral reforms. Secondly, we conduct a condition-oriented fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine our expectations, based on an original data set comparing policy integration and administrative coordination reforms, in environmental and unemployment policy, across 13 countries over 29 years. Our results indicate three necessary conditions for high reform intensity: external problem pressure is necessary for policy integration and administrative coordination in employment policy; either the strength or weakness of the reference party can take the role of necessary conditions depending on the policy field; low politicization of bureaucracy is necessary, especially for administrative coordination in environmental policy. These findings contribute to the development of a systematic theory of cross-sectoral policy and administrative change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the termination or reduction of policies under the header of policy dismantling is becoming increasingly relevant within public policy analysis. To foster the understanding of dismantling this paper proposes to analyse post-legislative measures defining the setting of policy instruments and to look closely into how this phase provides room and opportunities for dismantling attempts. We investigate dismantling in EU sustainable consumption policy and concentrate on measures implementing the two major instruments in this area: the command-and-control ecodesign policy aiming at producers and the soft information instrument ecolabel aiming at consumers. While the legislative development of the two policies shows no sign of dismantling along the dimensions of policy intensity and density, investigating the respective implementation measures in three crucial product groups of electronic equipment the analysis points to a change in the instrument setting. Thus, the cases studied suggest that the dismantling research benefits from in-depth policy research uncover dismantling strategies that easily remain hidden from political attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We asked two members of the Editorial Board, Erik Jones and Martin Lodge, to act as jury and select what they considered to be the best article published in JEPP in 2020 (excluding those published as part of a "Special Issue"). The winner of 2020 JEPP Best Paper Prize is: Burns, Charlotte, Eckersley, Peter & Tobin, Paul (2020). Jury statement I " i We were very impressed by the articles that we read, but we had a shared enthusiasm for the originality of the paper by Charlotte Burns, Peter Eckersley and Paul Tobin. [Extracted from the article]

The European Union (EU) is widely assumed to be a global environmental leader, especially in addressing climate change, though this reputation suffered greatly when European leaders were sidelined during the 2009 United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen. Subsequently, however, the EU has made significant progress in extending its Emission Trading System to the aviation sector, one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and did so not only regionally, but also managed to get it onto the global policy agenda. This contribution investigates the EU's role in shaping the 2013 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) resolution committing 191 government signatories to developing a global market-based measure to cap international aviation's carbon pollution. While not exactly setting new environmental standards or achieving definitive regulatory success, the case illustrates the agenda-setting capacity of the EU through leveraging its market power and adopting an explicitly extra-territorial rule to induce potential regulatory co-operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's (EU's) regulations affect how business is conducted and consumers and the environment protected in parts of the world far beyond its borders. Moreover, the external impact of its regulations informs understandings of the EU as a global actor. This contribution makes three main arguments. First, the EU's regulatory influence varies systematically across different forms of regulatory interaction: regulatory competition and different forms of regulatory co-operation. The form of regulatory interaction, therefore, is a critical intervening variable between the EU's regulatory power resources and its influence. Second, within the different forms of regulatory co-operation the EU's influence varies in line with expectations derived from the literature. But, third, the magnitude of the EU's influence seems to be considerably less in regulatory co-operation than suggested by the literature on regulatory competition; a finding that reinforces the first argument. The contribution also introduces the rest of the special issue, identifying three overarching conclusions: the utility of the EU's regulatory power resources is context specific; debates about what kind of power the EU is, at least as previously conceived, are unproductive; and that the EU's engagement in the world is better explained through general theories of international political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) is usually described as a promoter of global environmental governance, committed to sustainability and the precautionary principle. Regarding international fisheries management, however, the EU has repeatedly deviated from these principles. This article analyses the EU's policy in two Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs): the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). The EU's deviation from its environmental principles is explained by the weakness of the pro-environmental advocacy coalition in the EU's fisheries policy subsystem and the overcapacity of the EU's fleet, which first arose when European fishing nations were excluded from traditional fishing grounds during the creation of Exclusive Economic Zones in the 1970s. At the same time the article finds evidence of a trend towards sustainability and precaution in the EU's external fisheries policy since the mid-2000s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution explores the European Union's (EU) efforts to 'globalize' EU environmental regulation. EU leadership on global environmental governance emerged as a result of the combined effects of domestic politics and international regulatory competition. The growing power of environmental interests in Europe from the late 1980s, coupled with dynamics of EU policy-making, led the EU to commit to ambitious environmental policies. Given this commitment, it was in the EU's international competitive interests to support international agreements that would pressure other jurisdictions to adopt similar environmental regulations. Promoting treaties that spread EU environmental norms internationally also served to legitimize EU rules and to shield them from legal challenges before world trade bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘wider Europe’ initiative opens the possibility for a far-reaching association of the EU's eastern and southern European neighbours which, by offering ‘everything but institutions’ (Prodi), proposes an alternative to membership. This article presents this initiative as part of an ambitious external governance agenda by the enlarged Union with the aim to manage its new interdependence in an altered geopolitical context. Focusing on the conception of interdependence and the institutional configuration of EU relations with its near abroad, external governance is defined and examined in three prominent 'soft security' issues: justice and home affairs, environmental and energy policy. It is argued that external governance seeks to expand the 'legal boundary of the Union with only limited openings of its ‘institutional boundary’, thereby oscillating between an inclusionary and exclusionary approach towards its near abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) has issued hundreds if not thousands of directives and decisions over the last twenty-five years. Yet questions of compliance - to what extent do states comply, which states are likely to comply, what patterns of compliance exist within and across areas of regulation? - have not been extensively investigated and remain poorly understood. This article argues that compliance is a matter of state choice, and reviews current theoretical writings in international relations and comparative politics in order to better identify reasons for states' choices to comply with EU directives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the adequacy of international governance mechanisms to address environmental issues. It examines the impact of increased global economic integration on national and regional environmental standards, the role of market mechanisms in facilitating the dissemination of environmental standards from greener nations to less green ones and the impact of international agreements on trans-border environmental problems. It argues that current regional and international governance mechanisms are adequate to enable nations which have the resources and the commitment to improve environmental quality to do so, either on their own or in co- operation with other nations with similar values and resources. Fears about a `Delaware effect' regulatory race to the bottom are unwarranted: competition from nations with weaker environmental regulations has not prevented richer, greener nations - where the majority of world production occurs - from strengthening their own regulatory standards. On the contrary~ there is substantial evidence for a `California effect': nations are increasingly adopting the standards of their richer, greener trading partners. Trade agreements and environmental treaties have also played a critical role in strengthening many national environmental practices. However, current governance mechanisms do not adequately address regional and global environmental problems which require substantial changes in the behavior of poorer and less green nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Network perspectives can be useful but require further development. Scholars seem simply to assume the presence and importance of policy networks. It is important, therefore, to investigate instances in which policy networks arc absent or present but exhibit structural 'gaps'. Such inquiries can help to clarify the value of the network notion for explaining policy dynamics. This study provides such an opportunity. The investigation focuses on policy implementation for controlling air pollution in Hungary, as organized through the so-called international acidification regime. The case covers an effort to execute continuing and increasing policy commitments amidst dramatic political and economic change. The Hungarian implementation context exhibits a number of gaps or network failures which contribute to underperformance in this sector. Successful program implementation, at least in some fields, requires a recognition that networks are important but do not inevitably develop to fulfill implementation requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the drive to create a single market in the European Union (EU) was ostensibly about market liberalization, it has led to a recasting of the role of different tiers of government in the EU. This article introduces the special issue on regulation in the EU by summarizing some of the main features of the new regulatory environment. The article then assesses factors shaping the evolution of rules and points to topics in need of further work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of scientific knowledge in European environmental policy. However, it does so with a wider interest in mind, namely the putative building of a European political culture. In order to do so it attempts to identify some underlying cultural dimensions of scientific discourses for policy of standardization, comparability and objectivity. We analyse one case in detail, that of nature classification under the European CORINE environmental information system. We argue that some basic assumptions made in the construction of this environmental information system have implications not only for science and policy in the sphere of the environment, but for broader debates about identifications with European political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the EU Presidency plays a more important role than is generally assumed. It is not so much that the incumbent Presidency may try to 'push through' legislation close to the national interests but that it has an important role in fostering the Europeanization of national environmental policy-making. Holding the Presidency creates strong pressures to achieve agreement and fosters a subtle but important learning process about the European and national dimensions of policy problems. This is one of the main reasons why national objectives and 'styles' tend more often to give way to 'European thinking' about environmental policy when the Presidency is held. National differences in running the Presidency become more apparent during informal Councils which do not make decisions directly resulting in legislation. It will be shown that there appears to be little difference overall in the way the British and German governments run their respective Presidencies despite considerable differences in their national 'styles' of environmental policy- making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European regulatory policy-making unfolds in the context of diverse interests and traditions of member states. These diverse policy traditions clash in the European arena and have to be brought into balance. In the course of this process, some common co-ordination patterns emerge which, embedded in European institutions, are typical of regulatory policy-making in Europe. These patterns include a 'first mover' strategy by member states, 'problem- solving', and 'negative co-ordination, bargaining and compensation'. The result of the dynamic of these co-ordination patterns in regulatory policy-making is a policy patchwork at the European level. The diverse co-ordination patterns and their typical paths and policy consequences are illustrated by discussion of European legislation in the field of clean air policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the research "Decision-Making in the European Union." It mentions that the research aims to explore and compare the important features of decision making in various policy sectors. It mentions the policy sectors that will be analyzed in the research, which includes environmental policy, foreign and security policy, and internal market. It mentions that the initial stages of policy making is neglected in the literature of the European Union. It mentions that the study explores the stages and networks through which policies are developed. It mentions that the research is interview-based. Also mentioned are several commissions that have offered grants for the research.