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This article argues that the 'nature of the EU beast' is neither unique nor captured by a particular type of governance. Like its Member States, the EU features a combination of different forms of governance that cover the entire range between market and hierarchy. The analysis of this governance mix reveals several characteristics of the EU that have been largely overlooked in the literature. First, the EU relies heavily on hierarchy in the making of its policies. Its supranational institutions allow for the adoption and enforcement of legally binding decisions without the consent of (individual) Member States. Second, network governance, which systematically involves private actors, is hard to find. EU policies are largely formulated and implemented by public actors. Third, political competition has gained importance in European governance. Member States increasingly resort to mutual recognition and the open method of co-ordination where their heterogeneity renders harmonization difficult. The article shows that the EU mainly governs through inter- and transgovernmental negotiations and political competition between states and regions. Both forms of public-actor-based governance operate in the shadow of hierarchy cast by supranational institutions. This governance mix does not render the EU unique but still distinguishes it from both international institutions and national states. Adapted from the source document.

This article engages the ongoing theoretical debates in IR through a re-examination of sovereignty as traditionally understood. Despite a growing theoretical turn in IR towards more general investigations of institutions, much uncertainty and ambiguity as to how to best incorporate new issues and actors which transcend traditional state-centred politics remains. How can IR theory sufficiently take into account 'other' political actors which are neither NGOs nor states and cannot easily be categorized according to traditional dichotomies? Rather than concluding that sovereignty is in a state of demise, this political inquiry deconstructs and abstracts sovereignty from its Westphalian limitations. Instead, sovereignty is relocated from bounded state territories to the process of collective political identity and institution construction. Throughout this process, the power or importance of physical territory does not disappear but rather becomes subsumed under ongoing political contestation over the symbolic meanings of physical space more generally.

This article presents an outlined analysis from three German political scientists' project on the establishment & new dynamic of global governance, as carried out through a spectrum of public administration & international laws. In commencing the article the authors discuss instances where this phenomenon is occurring at the international level examined from a public law standpoint, & then provide the main points of their article, while analyzing various aspects & functions of governance, as well as fundamental right of self-determination. Next, the article looks at the law of institutions & public administration law, as taken into the context & practice of international public authority, i.e. such as through the United Nations & OECD; the evolution emanating from this phenomenon; & the various modes of thinking therein. Thirdly, the article then examines the concept of public-law enclosure, as it pertains to the practice of international public power; examining the various measures & mechanisms allotted to this dynamic, including factors of compliance & function; & the issues regarding the legitimacy of global governance, the overall potential & factors regarding their institutionalization, & emanating effects herein. In conclusion the authors summarize their findings through thematic studies & cross-sectional analysis, & their research design behind this project; & end on a note regarding the underlying, international ethos, as it pertains to global governance, politics, & society. Adapted from the source document.

The recent reform of the Danish governance system in the field of active employment policy has been subject to fierce criticism, as many commentators fear that it is the beginning of the end of the Danish Model of active stakeholder involvement. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, this study aims to analyse the impact of the governance reform by assessing the initial experiences with the Local Employment Councils (LECs). The analysis shows that the LECs are relatively well-functioning and contribute to an effective and democratic governance of local employment policy. Furthermore, the tight metagovernance of the LECs does not seem to straight-jacket the LECs as there is a considerable scope for local policy making which makes it worthwhile for the social partners to participate in the local networks.

Are the identity and interests of the English nation still sufficiently protected by the British state? (the English question). And can the British state still secure sufficient loyalty from all its citizens? (the Britishness question). The omission of England from the programme of devolution implemented by Labour governments since 1999 has not led to a strong demand in England for its inclusion. One reason for this is that most English identities do not need an English parliament for their further articulation. There is an ease of fit between English identity and Britishness as recently reformulated by Gordon Brown and his colleagues. This does not, however, dispose of the English question. England still needs a stronger political voice to protect its interests. The Barnett formula divides annual increases in public spending for a wide range of services between the four parts of the United Kingdom in a way that is unfavourable to England. The British government is unwilling to reform or replace it and, polls suggest, this is widely resented in England. The West Lothian question refers to the anomaly whereby Scottish MPs continue to vote at Westminster on matters pertaining only to England when English MPs cannot vote on equivalent matters pertaining only to Scotland because responsibility for them has been devolved to the Scottish parliament. This, polls suggest, is also widely resented in England, but the British government is disinclined to do anything about it. The only work in hand addressing the Barnett formula and backed by the major British parties (but not the Scottish National Party) is that of the (Calman) Commission on Scottish Devolution set up by the Scottish parliament. Its first report does not anticipate radical change. The only proposal by one of the major parties to answer the West Lothian question is that of the Conservatives' Democracy Task Force for a version of English Votes on English Laws (EVoEL) that meets many of the objections to earlier versions of EVoEL. Adapted from the source document.

This revised text of the Braibant lecture delivered in Helsinki addresses the widely shared difficulty of creating enough political will to reform public institutions, before crisis strikes and not after, and then to sustain the reforms through to completion. There is virtually no incentive for politicians or governments to do this: interests (including the administration itself) will most likely be hostile; meaningful change is only measured in years; few votes can be won. Yet the complex problems faced today by both individual countries and at planetary level, summarized in the beginning of the article, are so serious that it is vital to find ways to alleviate this difficulty without which all public policies and programmes suffer. The principal means must be much sharper and more articulately organized pressures for change so as to make it politically inconvenient to ignore them, and thus provide a genuine incentive to act. Nine propositions are made. Points for practitioners There are no obvious answers to the problem of getting the sustained interest of the political class to prosecute reform of public governance. Can sharper pressures along with the necessary fora and processes be developed? The difficulty is compounded by the trend to cynicism and outright dismissal as regards public authorities. On the other hand, the growing perception of dramatic problems shared across the planet introduces a potential for new institutional initiatives, mobilization of external groupings, incentive structures or attitude changes. As one example, could the trend to independent, more transparent responsibilities in such domains as monetary or fiscal policy be relevant?

Examines fiscal challenges to state and local governments in the US as a result of the Great Recession. Adapted from the source document.

Over the last two decades, the EU has shown a preference for the replacement of traditional command-and-control patterns of environmental regulation with more cooperative policy schemes in the expectation of improving compliance in member states. But has the EU performed as a 'governance-shaper' in member states, such as Spain, Portugal and Greece that have little tradition of non-hierarchical styles of environmental policy-making? To what extent has the domestic institutional context modulated the Europeanisation of environmental governance in these three Southern countries? The EU influence on the emergence of new schemes of governance in these Southern member states has been modelled by domestic institutional pathways encompassing territorial structure, policy saliency and trust between state and non-state actors. Adapted from the source document.

This article begins by questioning the transferability of Western conceptualisations of the 'state' to the developing world, particularly to those areas in which security concerns are extreme. It proposes that the complicated relationship between security and political liberalisation produces a reform-security dilemma, which in turn may result in dual-governance structures consisting of an autonomous 'state' bureaucracy and a relatively newer, political 'government'. The dynamics of such a duality are explored through a longitudinal comparison of two critical cases: Iran and Turkey. Both cases reveal evidence of the 'state' and 'government' as distinct bodies, emerging over time in response to conflicting pressures for security and liberalisation. While the Iranian case remains entrenched in a static duality with an advantaged 'state', the Turkish case provides optimism that, under certain conditions, an eventual subordination of the state to the political government can take place.