Europeanization through Regionalization? Reforming the French Railways.

This article analyses the interaction between Europeanization and regionalization in France, as reflected in recent rail transport reform, through which responsibility for the organization and funding of regional rail passenger services, hitherto exercised on behalf and under the authority of the central state by the national rail company, has been transferred to regional councils. The evidence presented here suggests that the underlying logic of policy change has been provided by regional input into norms and substance, generating a highly pluralistic pattern of Europeanization from below. Significant convergence may nonetheless be observed in the regions' commitment to the regional rail system as a public service and their resistance to pressures in the direction of economic neo-liberalism. Core residual features of the traditional French rail service ideology have been incorporated into distinctive regional strategies, bringing together elements of regional and national path dependency in a selective process of Europeanization through regionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]