Suchergebnisse

Wie keine anderen Verhandlungen in der jüngeren Geschichte haben die bilateralen Gespräche zur Transatlantischen Handels- und Investitionspartnerschaft (kurz TTIP) die öffentliche Meinung gespalten. Dieses Buch analysiert die Argumente von Befürwortern und Gegnern und nimmt jenseits der Schlagzeilen um Chlorhühner, Hormonfleisch und private Schiedsgerichte die grundlegenden politischen Motive und Folgen von TTIP kritisch in den Blick. Sichtbar wird eine neoliberale Agenda, die den längst eingeleiteten Prozess einer »deep liberalization« nicht nur der Handelspolitik radikalisiert und damit einer Depolitisierung und Ökonomisierung klassischer Politikfelder weiter Vorschub leistet. Der große zivilgesellschaftliche Protest gegen TTIP birgt dagegen die Chance, die Handelspolitik aus den Hinterzimmern der Technokraten herauszuholen und zu repolitisieren.

Contents -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- A Note on Data, Methods and Design Choices -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 2: External Imbalances and Varieties of Capitalism in the Euro Area -- External Imbalances and Crisis in the EA -- Macroeconomic Perspectives on the EA Crisis -- A Political Economy Perspective -- Varieties of Capitalism and Imbalances in the EA -- A Brief Introduction to the CC Literature -- Varieties of Labor Market Institutions and Competiveness in the EA

AbstractDo domestic institutions affect industrialised countries' positions in global value chains? A key insight from literature on global value chains is that a firm's decision to offshore depends on the trade‐off between price competitive gains and coordination costs. The role of domestic institutions in this decision has largely been neglected in global value chains analyses. However, a core insight from literature on varieties of capitalism is that the outcome of this trade‐off differs depending on the national institutions in which firms are embedded. National economies vary in terms of the importance of non‐market institutions for firms' production decisions. This article integrates insights from both literatures, resulting in the hypotheses that for firms in coordinated market economies offshoring has lower gains and higher costs than for firms in liberal market economies and that this will translate in a different importance and/or geography of global value chains. We empirically test these hypotheses by focusing on Germany. We find that Germany is intensively integrated in international value chains, but that its core sectors have made relatively more use of 'near shoring', as this allows them to retain comparative institutional advantages. This has permitted Germany to maintain and even expand output and employment in industry.

This paper aims to convince the reader of the potential of a critical version of historical institutionalism (HI) as a theoretical perspective for EU trade policy analysis. It argues that critical HI sensitises the analyst to important but hitherto often neglected factors including: the influence of the past on EU trade policy; the complex, multiarena and multilevel nature of contemporary trade policy; and issues of distributional conflict. The core concept in critical HI is 'reactive sequencing', conceiving of policy evolution as a chain of events produced by reactions and counter-reactions. This paper demonstrates that this is invaluable to understand contemporary EU trade politics. Some examples of EU trade policy decisions and its general strategic evolution since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round are given to show the value of critical HI. Finally, the external dimension of "Europe 2020" as the latest trade policy strategy is analysed from a critical historical institutionalist angle.

In 2018, the Californian government adopted a new data protection framework. The flagship of this framework is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). As this new framework is widely considered to resemble the European Union's (EU's) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this article intends to investigate whether the Brussels Effect could explain this resemblance. We apply process-tracing to test if the Brussels Effect causally connects the GDPR with the CCPA. The analysis is based on a careful evaluation of three sets of evidence. Firstly, privacy policies of Apple, Facebook, and Google are examined. Secondly, lobbying concerning the alignment of the implementation of the CCPA with the GDPR is scrutinized. Lastly, it is investigated whether the Californian government has used arguments linked to the Brussels Effect while drafting the CCPA and its subsequent implementing regulations. It is concluded that the Brussels Effect has indeed played a role in the adoption of the CCPA. Nevertheless, it has become clear that the impact of the Effect varies depending on exactly which provision of the GDPR is examined.
Brussels Effect, process-tracing, California, CCPA, European Union, GDPR, Data Protection, Lobbying, Big Tech