Suchergebnisse

This book assesses the ability of learning theories to explain European Union (EU) integration processes, highlighting the conditions under which EU actors in various decision-making processes learn or do not learn.It was published as a special issue of Journal of European Public Policy.

AbstractThis contribution fleshes out the insights that the epistemic community (EC) approach can make to studying the public policy process and to how policy instruments are formulated and implemented. This contribution places the EC concept in the context of how policy instruments evolve and are supported by a separate network type, the instrument constituency (IC). It studies the conceptual differences between the EC and IC, analyses the conceptual progress and research output of the EC literature, and then reviews the EC literature to develop new analytical propositions about how epistemic communities, in relation to instrument constituencies, shape instrument change. This contribution then explores the value of these network concepts and propositions by examining four United States federal environmental policy instruments. It concludes that there is strong evidence for the role of ICs, and to a lesser extent, ECs, and that such public policy analysis would benefit from a greater network conceptualization.

"New Policy Instruments" published on by Oxford University Press.

This contribution investigates the strategies that environmental agencies develop to enhance their policy autonomy, in order to fulfil their organisational missions for protecting the environment. This article asks whether there are particular strategic moves that an agency can make to augment this policy autonomy in the face of the principals. Critiquing principal agent theory, it investigates the evolution of three environmental agencies (the European Environment Agency, the England and Wales Environment Agency and the United States Environmental Protection Agency), focusing on the case study of climate change. The contribution examines how the agencies influence environmental policy on domestic, regional and global levels, with a special focus on the principals that constrain agency autonomy. A greater focus on different multi-level contexts, which the three agencies face, may create other possible dynamics and opportunities for agency strategies. Agencies can use particular knowledge, network and alliance building to strengthen their policy/political positions.

This contribution investigates the strategies that environmental agencies develop to enhance their policy autonomy, in order to fulfil their organisational missions for protecting the environment. This article asks whether there are particular strategic moves that an agency can make to augment this policy autonomy in the face of the principals. Critiquing principal agent theory, it investigates the evolution of three environmental agencies (the European Environment Agency, the England and Wales Environment Agency and the United States Environmental Protection Agency), focusing on the case study of climate change. The contribution examines how the agencies influence environmental policy on domestic, regional and global levels, with a special focus on the principals that constrain agency autonomy. A greater focus on different multi-level contexts, which the three agencies face, may create other possible dynamics and opportunities for agency strategies. Agencies can use particular knowledge, network and alliance building to strengthen their policy/political positions.