1st Edition

Policy Transfer in European Union Governance Regulating the Utilities

    238 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    240 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This new book presents a clear conceptual framework for understanding the transfer of policy ideas between EU states, together with an empirical study of regulatory change within European utilities.

    Policy transfer is a new instrument for understanding EU policy-making. This volume shows how the nature of institutions, interdependence between trans-national and national jurisdictions and social systems, relate policy actors across geographical boundaries, identifying four basic types of EU policy transfer and learning:

    • ‘uploading’– how member states compete to shape the EU agenda in line with their own institutional arrangements and policy preferences
    • ‘downloading’– how states adapt to changing EU incentives and constraints
    • ‘socialization’ – how EU policy norms are internalized in the belief systems of domestic actors
    • ‘information exchange’ between national actors in the course of EU interactions leading to a horizontal diffusion of policy ideas.

    The authors use an institutionalist perspective to show how these forms of policy transfer operate across the diverse systems of governance found across the EU.

    Policy Transfer in European Union Governance will be of great interest to students and scholars of European Union politics and policy, comparative public policy and political economy.

    Preface

    Introduction

    Chapter 1 EU Governance and Policy Transfer

    Chapter 2 The External Environment

    Chapter 3 Negotiated Policy Transfer

    Chapter 4 EU The legislation

    Chapter 5 Liberalization and Regulation in the Member States

    Conclusion

    References

    Biography

    Simon Bulmer is Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics at the University of Manchester, UK.

    David Dolowitz is a Reader in the School of Politics at the University of Liverpool, UK.

    Peter Humphreys is Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester, UK.

    Stephen Padgett is Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde, UK.