Suchergebnisse

`[This book] is to be welcomed for shedding light on a relatively new and highly sensitive policy area' - European Foreign Affairs Review Foreign and Security Policy in the European Union provides a comprehensive overview of why European integration in foreign and security policy has proved so difficult. A leading group of international contributors explain how these problems arise and consider the future prospects of developing a more regional-based solution.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of why European integration in foreign and security policy has proved so difficult. The obstacles to developing the common policy in this second pillar of the European Union go to the heart of debates around the sovereignty of the nation-state. A leading group of international contributors explain how these problems arise and consider the future prospects of developing a more regional-based solution. Broadly organized around the three areas of policy, actors and issues, the first section traces the reluctant growth of EU integration in foreign and se.

The article considers two aspects of the establishment in Norway of a mass participatory parliamentary democracy: the changing national and regional patterns of recruitment to parliamentary positions, and the long‐term processes of democratization and political mobilization. The influence of high social status upon parliamentary recruitment was replaced by that of high political status. This changeover, however, was modified by a distinct centre‐periphery dimension in both social substitution and the process of political professionalization, corresponding to regional variations in the timing and tempo of mass mobilization.

A broad-ranging and highly intelligent account of key recent developments internationally which skillfully updates the public management and governance literatures' - Ewan Ferlie, Royal Holloway. 'Public management has been radically changed and reformed. this book gives students a fine introduction to these changes and to the theories dealing with them' - J rgen Gr nnegaard Christensen, University of Aarhus. An introduction and guide to the dramatic changes that have occurred in the provision of public services over the last two decades, this book combines theoretical perspectives with a ran.

This paper argues that the re-emergence of a universal service debate is a political reaction to the deregulation process and an attempt to force the role of the state and public services higher on the agenda at EU level. To this end, the concepts of 'service public' and 'public services' are explored in light of telecommunication deregulation and public service provision as expressed by the universal service obligation (USO) in France, Great Britain, Belgium and Norway. Attention is paid to the importance of securing general access to telecommunications. Findings suggest the legitimating effect of USO is greater than its practical effects, and that market, competition, and technology have largely addressed problems with universal access, equality, continuity and affordability, rather than regulations. Further, future regulations of universal service provision and 'service public' requirements will need to address concerns over citizens' dislike of some effects of regional and national deregulation and liberalisation policies.

The 'No' majorities in two referendums on European Community/Union (EC/EU) membership have set clear formal limits to Norway's participation in European integration. However, pro‐EU parliamentary majorities have tended to produce governments that seek as close cooperation with the EU as possible. This involves a kind of quasi‐membership of the EU, particularly in the light of cooperation beyond the limits of the European Economic Area (EEA). The result has been a 'Norwegian method' of European integration that combines access to the Single Market with efforts to 'purchase' participation in other policy areas and adapt to changing EU policies, legislation and treaties. Given the supranational character of the EU's Single Market rules, this kind of quasi‐membership goes considerably further than non‐members' participation in most other international organisations. Although the EEA system has worked to the parties' satisfaction, Norway's efforts to keep up with a changing Single Market, maintain the institutions in the face of treaty change and enlargement, and accommodate new developments pertaining to the EU's second and third pillars represent considerable challenges to the Norwegian method of integration.

The paper focuses on the link between the two 'channels of political influence that exist in most liberal democracies: the electoral‐parliamentary channel with political parties as the crucial structures intermediating between citizens and decision‐makers, and the organizational‐corporate channel with interest groups as intermediating structures. Although the two avenues open to citizens' demands may often function as alternatives, they are not independent of each other. Thus, the involvement of organizational and institutional interests affects the level of partisan conflict in the law‐making process. The main assumption is that if bills are drafted by the active participation of external actors, they are likely to be passed at a relatively low level of conflict in parliament. A number of specific hypotheses based on this assumption are tested on data pertaining to Government bills passed by the Danish parliament 1972–74. The hypotheses relate to different types of bill preparation, subsequent outside contacts to parliamentary committees indicating societal disagreement on bills, and different areas of public policy. While the evidence gives strong support to the hypotheses it also indicates limits to the influence of external actors. This suggests an important difference between the two channels: like the corporate channel the parliamentary channel is one of influence, but unlike the corporate channel, it is also one of national responsibility.