Suchergebnisse

The European Citizens&rsquo ; Initiative (ECI) Right2Water asked for guaranteed water quality and quantity all over Europe, and demanded that water services remain in the hands of public entities. Support for Right2Water was particularly pronounced in Germany. The German organisers managed to collect 16 times more signatures than the minimum necessary to be counted towards the quorum. How have the German political parties reacted to the overwhelming public support for Right2Water? To answer this question, we examined the election manifestos of the main political parties, published for the federal elections in 2005, 2009, 2013, and 2017, and the elections to the European Parliament in 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019. We concentrated on one specific goal of Right2Water, which refers to preventing the liberalisation of water services in the European Union. We expected the attention to and positioning of the liberalisation of water services to vary across the individual German parties. Since Right2Water was organised by public service trade unions and pursues an anti-liberalisation agenda, we expected left-wing parties to have laid a greater emphasis on this issue than right-wing parties, and for them to have adopted positions that aligned with the goals of the ECI. Our empirical findings show that a left&ndash ; right division exists among the parties concerning the attention they paid to this issue as well as how they positioned themselves.

A growing number of cities in different world regions are forming transnational networks in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change. In this study, we are interested in the nexus between climate change and urban water management. How do transnational city networks for climate action perceive urban water management? What kind of activities do they adopt for improving urban water management? How effective are these in practice? This study maps 17 transnational city networks that primarily work on climate governance, assesses whether they formally embrace urban water management as a field of activity, and analyzes the extent to which they influence local climate action regarding water-related issues. Our descriptive analysis reveals that the great majority of transnational city networks has embraced goals related to urban water management, mostly framed from the perspective of adaptation to climate change. However, our in-depth analysis of two frontrunner cities in Germany shows that membership in ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) has only limited influence on the initiation and implementation of water-related policy measures.

The interaction between economic integration and environmental policy has become an important issue in the last few years. Despite the considerable scholarly attention this topic attracted, actual government responses in terms of environmental policy outputs remain largely untouched by both theoretical and empirical work. To fill this gap, we suggest a theory-based disaggregation of the compound variable economic integration for deriving more precise expectations on its differential impact on environmental policy arrangements. In doing so, we show that economic integration may indeed trigger the promulgation of more demanding environmental regulations. To illustrate our arguments empirically, we analyze the development of Turkish clean air policy between 1975 and 2005.

Environmental Policy Change in Emerging Market Democracies demonstrates that, although political and economic transformations have positively affected environmental policy in both regions, the extent of policy change varies considerably across Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America

The publication aims to familiarize students of public policy with the precautionary principle, which plays a vital role in the European Union's approach toward regulating risks. The precautionary principle contends that policy makers should refrain from actions having a suspected risk of causing harm to the public and/or the environment. However, the precautionary principle only provides guidance to policy makers but does not prescribe specific policy responses. Therefore, there should be variation in the way the principle is applied. Furthermore, precautionary measures are, in principle, of a provisional nature, suggesting that they are likely to be subject to changes over time. This book is thus interested in shedding light on how the precautionary principle is put into practice and to what extent precautionary measures become modified. Empirically, it focuses on how the EU has regulated the use of growth hormones in meat production, the cultivation of genetically modified corn and the use of Stevia-based sweeteners in foods and beverages. The main theoretical argument advanced by this study is that the way in which the original regulatory standards were formulated affects whether and how they are changed. By placing particular emphasis on the relevance of scientific evidence for the (re- )definition of precautionary measures, the book is expected to appeal to both academics and practitioners.

"This book examines environmental policy change in twenty-eight Central and Eastern European and Latin American countries against a background of significant political and economic transformation over the past two decades. Through cross-regional comparison and a multi-methods approach, Jale Tosun investigates changes in the regulation of air, soil, and water pollution, genetically modified corn, and the sustainable management of forests. Tosun also looks at the relationship between system transformation and the creation of environmental procuracies in both parts of the world

The European Green Deal puts forth an ambitious agenda for a transition towards sustainable development. To this end, it embraces participatory governance and has even created a new tool for it: climate pact ambassadors (CPAs). CPAs either act on their own behalf or represent organisations that have made a publicly accessible pledge. They are expected to provide information on and support for climate action, as well as 'inspire' others in their networks and communities. Despite only being launched in December 2020, the European Commission has endorsed more than 850 CPAs (as of October 2022). What role can the CPAs play at the different stages of the policy cycle? How could their participation in pertinent policy processes become more effective? These are the two questions that guide this explorative analysis.

There are different styles of politics and logics of stability and dynamism. It starts from an approach of European stereotypes and from there patterns or styles are built through which the different countries exercise decisions for their specific case. The notion of systematizing and identifying patterns of behavior in countries regarding how their democratic game is organized, what are the styles and forms of exercising policies, is quite common in the analysis of political science. The conclusions indicate that there is a great analytical potential in the styles of politics and leadership, and at the same time the tools to make a comparative analysis increase. Criticisms of styles point out that emphasis should be placed on sectoral policies. ; Existen diferentes estilos de política y lógicas de estabilidad y dinamismo. Se parte de un enfoque de los estereotipos europeos y a partir de allí se construyen patrones o estilos mediante los cuales los distintos países ejercen las decisiones para su caso concreto. La noción de sistematizar e identificar patrones de comportamiento en países respecto de cómo se organiza su juego democrático, cuáles son los estilos y formas de ejercer las políticas, es bastante usual en el análisis de la ciencia política. Las conclusiones señalan que existe un gran potencial analítico en los estilos de política y liderazgos, y al mismo tiempo aumentan las herramientas para hacer un análisis comparado. Las críticas a los estilos señalan que habría que poner el acento en las políticas sectoriales.