Varieties of Europeanisation and the National Regulatory State
| Author | Martin Lodge |
| Published date | 01 April 2002 |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207670201700204 |
| Date | 01 April 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Varieties
of
Europeanisation
and
the
National
Regulatory
State
Martin
Lodge
London
School
of
Economics
and
Political
Science
Abstract
The
notions
of
'regulatory
state'
and
'Europeanisation'
have
become
increasingly
current
in
recent
years.
This
article
analyses
the
extent
to
which
the
national
regulatory
state
has
been
Europeanised,
focusing
in
particular
on
network
industry
regulation
in
four
European
Union
(EU)
member
states,
the
United
Kingdom,
Ireland,
Germany
and
Sweden.
It
does
so
in
three
steps.
First,
four
dimensions
of
Europeanisation
are
discussed,
pointing
to:
different
institutional
constellations
in
which
Europeanisation
takes
place,
different
Europeanisation
'triggers';
institutional
consequences
of
Europeanisation
at
the
national
level;
and,
finally,
different
dynamics
of
Europeanisation.
Second,
the
article
surveys
regulatory
reform
in
four
EU
member
states,
suggesting
that
national
diversity
remains
prominent,
whether
in
terms
of
organising
network
regulation,
processes
of
reform
or
the
utilisation
of
particular
regulatory instruments
to
enhance
transparency.
Finally,
the
article
considers
the
impact
of
the
four
dimensions
of
Europeanisation
on
the
national
regulatory
state
in
network
regulation.
It
suggests
that,
far
from
transforming
national
regulation,
Europeanisation
is
associated
with
many
different
phenomena,
allowing
for
continued
national
diversity
and
adding
to
existing
policy
cleavages.
Introduction
The
notions
of
Europeanisation
and
regulatory
reform
have
become
social
science
'boom
industries'
in
their
own
right
in
recent
years.
The
first
is
interested
in
the
impact
of
EU
policies
and
policy-making
on
the
national
level
and
therefore
reflects
and
builds
on
long-standing
discussions
in
international
relations
on
the
interaction
between
domestic
and
international
politics
(Gourevitch,
1978)
and
on
comparative
public policy
with
its
renewed
interest in
the
notions
of
'policy
transfer',
'policy
learning'
and
'policy
convergence'.
The
second
re-emerged
in
the
context
of
the
study
of
Public
Policy
and
Administration
Volume
17
No.
2
Summer
2002
43
the
EU
(pointing
to
incentives
to
maximise
influence
over
policy
content
in
the
absence
of
discretionary
large-scale
budgets)
and
has
since
travelled
to
the
study
of
state-business
relations
and
to
internal
government
control
mechanisms
at
the
national
level
(Dohler,
2001;
Hood,
et
al.
1999;
Majone,
1997;
1999;
Thatcher,
2002).
As
'boom
industries',
both
notions
have
received
increased
attention
in
the
literature
with
approaches
and
fields
of
study
increasingly
diversifying,
if
not
multiplying.
This
article
questions
the
extent
of
the
Europeanisation
of
the
national
regulatory
state,
considering
in
particular
network
regulation
across
four
EU
member
states;
the
UK
(looking
primarily
at
Britain),
Ireland,
Germany
and
Sweden.
It
does
so
in
three
steps.
The
first
section
surveys
the
Europeanisation
literature,
suggesting
that
Europeanisation
may
be
differentiated
in
to
at
least
four
dimensions.
The
second
part
discusses
the
evolution
of
the
regulatory
state
at
the
national
level,
questioning
whether
there
has
been
an
increasing
'convergence'
among
forms
of
network
regulation
across
these
four
EU
countries.
Third,
the
article
discusses
how
the
different
dimensions
of
Europeanisation
support
the
analysis
of
change
in
the
regulatory
state
across
the
four
states.
While
Europeanisation
is
at
best
an
intervening
variable
for
explaining
change
in
the
regulatory
state,
it
nevertheless
constitutes
an
important
dimension
which
requires
further
exploration
by
more
systematic
classification
and
categorisation.
This
promotes
greater
cross-domain
and
cross-national
comparison.
Varieties
of
Europeanisation
As
already
noted,
Europeanisation
has
been
associated
with
an
increasingly
wide
range
of
potential
research
questions,
literatures
and
frameworks.
At
its
core,
it
is
interested
in
the
sources
and
ways
in
which
national
states
adapt
as
part
of
their
membership
to
the
EU
(Radaelli,
2000).
Initially,
the
notion
of
Europeanisation
was
linked
to
research
investigating
whether
there
was
an
increasing
similarity
between
national
and
EC
policy.
This
similarity
was
assumed
to
be
driven
by
the
logic
of
national
membership
to
the
EU,
in
particular
by
decisions
taken
by
the
supranational
organisations,
the
European
Commission
and
the
European
Court
of
Justice.
Thus,
while
this
approach
offered
some
parsimony
-
the
null
hypothesis
being
that
there
was
'no
Europeanisation'-
the
study
of
such
effects
nevertheless
suffered
from
substantial
problems
(shared
by
the
wider
policy
transfer
and
policy
convergence
literature
(see
Bennett,
1997).
It
had
to
be
shown
that
the
EU
element
played
a
decisive
element
in
shifting
domestic
policy.
Europeanisation
has
since
been
increasingly
associated
with
more
differentiated
sets
of
phenomena
(see
also
Dyson
and
Goetz,
2002).
The
agenda
is
dominated
by
the
search
for
effects
and
causes
of
interaction
between
EU
and
national
(and
sub-national)
levels,
thereby
being
able
to
draw
on
diverse
research
agendas
and
approaches.
This
interaction
involves
a
differentiated
view
of
the
sources
and
triggers
of
'Europeanisation'
as
well
as
the
effect
of
these
triggers
on
domestic
politics
and
public
policy,
also
44Public
Policy
and
Administration
Volume
17
No.
2
Summer
2002
44
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