FRAMING EUROPE: THE POLICY SHAPING STRATEGIES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION ‐ by Mark Rhinard
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2012.02110.x |
| Published date | 01 March 2013 |
| Author | Falk Daviter |
| Date | 01 March 2013 |
REVIEWS 245
FRAMING EUROPE: THE POLICY SHAPING STRATEGIES OF THE EUROPEAN
COMMISSION
Mark Rhinard
Republic of Letters Publishing, Dordrecht, 2010, 247 pp., $49 (pb), ¤39 (hb), ISBN:
9789089790453, ISBN: 9789089790446
In this uniquely accessible study of supranational politics, Rhinard turns to the question
of how the framing of policy issues affects political dynamics and policy outcomes in the
European Union. The centrepiece of the book is two longitudinal case studies of EU policy-
making in the areas of agriculture and biotechnology. The case studies in-depth, qualitative
analysis of the policy domains and their respective developments in the period from the
1980s until the early 2000s. While agriculture, long counted as one of the most entrenched
and dysfunctional areas of EU policy-making, was slowly but substantially transformed
over the period under investigation, biotechnology represents the opposite case of a newly
created policy area with a quickly widening scope of regulatory activity and less stable
political alliances. How framing dynamics differ in varying policy environments is a
central concern of the book. In addition to document analysis, the case studies rely heavily
on over 40 expert interviews conducted in the process of this research. The rich empirical
narratives produce a vivid portrayal of the politics of policy-making inside the European
Commission and of the informal dynamics of EU decision-making more generally.
The overarching theoretical interest of the book is to show how interests, institutions,
and ideas interact to produce political change. In developing the argument, the book
frequently moves back and forth between literatures from the fields of international
relations, comparative politics, and policy analysis. The discussion illustrates both the
author’s firm grasp of diverse academic debates and his staunch belief that EU studies
have much to gain from perusing a multi-track theoretical approach. In fact, the book
is strongest when it illuminates detailed case histories from different analytical angles.
Rather than providing a single theoretical framework, the framing approach adopted by
Rhinard primarily serves to focus the analysis on recurring pieces of the empirical puzzle.
In particular, the passages that illustrate how the respective policy domains were reshaped
Public Administration Vol. 91, No. 1, 2013 (232–250)
©2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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