Policy Framing in the European Union


Book Description

Explores how the framing of issues on the EU agenda affects policy-making. In a study that traces the highly contested developments in biotechnology policy over twenty years, the book introduces the conceptual and theoretical tenets of policy framing and shows how this analytical lens offers a unique perspective on issues in EU policy-making.




Framing the EU Global Strategy


Book Description

This book tells the story of the EU Global Strategy (EUGS). By reflecting back on the 2003 European Security Strategy, this book uncovers the background, the process, the content and the follow-up of the EUGS thirteen years later. By framing the EUGS in this broader context, this book is essential for anyone wishing to understand European foreign policy. The author, who drafted the EUGS on behalf of High Representative and Vice President of the Commission (HRVP) Federica Mogherini, uses the lens of the EUGS to provide a broader narrative of the EU and its functioning. Tocci’s hybrid role as a scholar and adviser has given her unique access to and knowledge of a wide range of complex structures and actors, all the while remaining sufficiently detached from official processes to retain an observer’s eye. This book reflects this hybrid nature: while written by and for scholars, it is not a classic scholarly work, but will appeal to anyone wishing to learn more about the EUGS and European foreign policy more broadly.




Framing the European Union


Book Description

This accessible study explores the impact of political language and campaigning upon public opinion towards European integration.




Agenda-Setting in the European Union


Book Description

Why does the EU deal with some issues but not others? This is the central question of this book dedicated to agenda-setting processes in the EU. Through a comparison of EU and US policy agendas and the analysis of four case studies in environmental and health policy, this book offers a new understanding of how policy issues come onto the EU agenda.




Framing Europe


Book Description

Studies in International Institutional Dynamics, 3 (International Studies Library, 24) Public policymaking increasingly takes place on an international stage, drawing attention to how international bureaucracies set agendas and shape policy outcomes. This book focuses on the European Union and reveals a key strategy used to influence policymaking by one of its central institutions, the European Commission. While most scholarship on the Commission examines its formal means of influence, this book demonstrates how the Commission employs a more informal method of "strategic framing" to manipulate the ideational framework in which policymaking takes place. This method helps the Commission to privilege certain actors, institutional processes, and policy goals in pursuit of preferred outcomes. The effects of strategic framing are examined in four cases of policy change in the fields of agriculture and biotechnology. "Mark Rhinard has produced a significant study of policymaking in the European Union. He points to the complex interactions of ideas and institutions in making policy. The work is especially important for linking ideas of social construction with theories of the policy process. This book deserves reading by all students of the EU and public policy." - B. Guy Peters, University of Pittsburgh - Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of Tables List of Frequently Used Acronyms Chapter One: Introduction PART ONE: EMPIRICAL AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS Chapter Two: The European Commission and the EU Policy Process Chapter Three: Strategic Framing PART TWO: REFORMING THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY, 1988-2003 Chapter Four: A Crack in the Armor: EU Agricultural Reform, 1988-1992 Chapter Five: Building On Momentum: EU Agricultural Reform, 1993-2003 PART THREE: MAKING BIOTECHNOLOGY POLICY IN THE EU, 1980-2001 Chapter Six: "Hijacking In Progress" EU Biotechnology Laws, 1980-1990 Chapter Seven: Backlash Towards EU Biotechnology Policy, 1991-2001 PART FOUR: CONCLUSIONS Chapter Eight: Conclusions: Framing As Strategy Works Cited Index About the Author(s)/Editor(s) Mark Rhinard (PhD, Cambridge) is Senior Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs where he leads the Europe Research Program. He has published extensively on the European Union in scholarly texts and journals.




Framing Europe


Book Description

This book provides a major empirical analysis of differing attitudes to European integration in three of Europe's most important countries: Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. From its beginnings, the European Union has resounded with debate over whether to move toward a federal or intergovernmental system. However, Juan Díez Medrano argues that empirical analyses of support for integration--by specialists in international relations, comparative politics, and survey research--have failed to explain why some countries lean toward federalism whereas others lean toward intergovernmentalism. By applying frame analysis to a unique set of primary sources (in-depth interviews, newspaper articles, novels, history texts, political speeches, and survey data), Díez Medrano demonstrates the role of major historical events in transforming national cultures and thus creating new opportunities for political transformation. Clearly written and rigorously argued, Framing Europe explains differences in support for European integration between the three countries studied in light of the degree to which each realized its particular "supranational project" outside Western Europe. Only the United Kingdom succeeded in consolidating an empire and retaining it after World War II, while Germany and Spain each abandoned their corresponding aspirations. These differences meant that these countries' populations developed different degrees of identification as Europeans and, partly in consequence, different degrees of support for the building of a federal Europe.




EU Lobbying: Empirical and Theoretical Studies


Book Description

EU Lobbying: Empirical and Theoretical studies offers an analysis of large empirical studies of interest group politics and Lobbying in Europe. Recognising the continued European economic integration, globalisation and the changing role of the state, it observs significant adaptations in interest mobilisation and strategic behavour. This book assesses the logic of collective and direct action, the logic of access and influence, the logic of venue-shopping and alliance building. It addresses specific issues such as: the emergence of elite pluralism in EU institutions, the pump priming of political action by EU institutions, and the growing political sophistication of private and public interests in Brussels. Through these issues the book explores how interest groups lobby different European institutions along the policy process and how the nature of policy dictates the style and level of lobbying. This book was previously published as a special issue of Jounal of European Public Policy




Strategic Frames


Book Description

Joseph Rothschild Book Prize Honorable Mention Strategic Frames analyzes minority policies in Estonia and Latvia following their independence from the Soviet Union. It weighs the powerful influence of both Europe and Russia on their policy choices, and how this intersected with the costs and benefits of policy changes for the politicians in each state. Prior to EU accession, policymakers were slow to adopt minority-friendly policies for ethnic Russians despite mandates from the European Union. These initiatives faced majority opposition, and politicians sought to maintain the status quo and their positions. As Jennie L. Schulze reveals, despite the credit given to the democratizing influence of European institutions, they have rarely produced significant policy changes alone, and then only when domestic constraints were low. Whenever domestic opposition was high, Russian frames were crucial for the passage of reforms. In these cases, Russia’s activism on behalf of Russian speakers reinforced European frames, providing powerful justifications for reform. Schulze’s attention to both the strategic framing and counter framing of external actors explains the controversies, delays, and suboptimal outcomes surrounding the passage of “conditional” amendments in both cases, as well as the local political climate postaccession. Strategic Frames offers a significant reference on recent developments in two former Soviet states and the rapidly evolving spheres of political influence in the postindependence era that will serve students, scholars, and policymakers alike.




Lobbying Success in the European Union


Book Description

Having information is key in most political decisions – for both decision-makers and societal actors. This is especially crucial in democratic countries where external stakeholders are invited to participate in decision-making processes. Assuming that every actor who gets involved in decision-making processes has a certain lobbying goal, we face a heterogeneous set of actors competing against each other to provide information to the decision-makers. This competition leads some stakeholders to be more successful in achieving their goals than others. Frames and the framing of information play an important role in such lobbying success. In this book, Daniel Rasch questions if and how information impacts lobbying success and shows how groups perform in three instances of European decision-making. He does so by combining findings from a qualitative content analysis with the results of a cross-case analysis using the quantified qualitative data. The new dataset contains a representative sample of over 200 position papers from EU level and national consultations, press releases and evidence from national stakeholders from Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Lobbying Success in the European Union effectively bridges research from interest mediation and framing studies and offers a new model about how to measure stakeholders’ success. This new and pragmatic approach to study lobbying success with a traceable and easy to use instrument can be used and adapted to any policy analysis and issue.




Crisis and Politicisation


Book Description

This book elucidates the link between the politics of a now seemingly permanent crisis in Europe and the politicisation of European integration. Looking at the epistemic dimension of crises, it suggests that the way in which a crisis is framed and contested determines its potential impact on the level of politicisation of European integration. Europe is more challenged and contested today than it has even been, facing crisis of an almost existential kind. Yet, political crises are manufactured and narrated, so Europe has the possibility to intervene and ‘bring about her recovery’, instead of letting these crises prove terminal. This book explores the political process in and through which certain events come to be framed as constitutive of a moment that requires a decisive intervention. It shows that crises require a double framing: a situation needs to be identified as one of crisis in the first place and, subsequently, the nature and character of the crisis need to be specified. By examining a wide range of policy areas, the book demonstrates that framing of crises, i.e., identifying one situation both as a crisis and a crisis of a particular kind, contributes to the politicisation (or depoliticisation) of the process of European integration. The chapters in this book were originally published as special issue of Journal of European Integration.




Recent Books