1st Edition

Developing European Regions? Comparative Governance, Policy Networks and European Integration

By Maura Adshead Copyright 2017
    206 Pages
    by Routledge

    206 Pages
    by Routledge

    This title was first published in 2002: Developing European Regions? presents a novel approach to the analysis of European regional policy and uses network analysis as an innovative instrument to understand the integration process within individual countries. The book develops a convincing argument about the different manifestation of integration in Ireland, Britain and Germany resulting from the implementation of European Union (EU) structural policy in specific domestic contexts. Employing a distinctive methodology designed to overcome some of the problems associated with cross-national comparison and studies of European integration, the case studies chosen enable a substantive comparison of the impact of EU involvement in policy and associated developments in governance upon federal and unitary systems of governance. Suitable for audience of area specialists, regional politics, sub-national governance, comparative politics and public administration, public policy analysis and network theory, as well as European studies and European integration theory, the book is an extremely useful contribution to the literature.

    Contents: The re-ordering of governance and European integration: a framework for analysis; Structuring policy networks: sub-national government in Germany, Ireland and Britain; Managing policy networks: central government approaches to regional development in Germany, Ireland and Britain; Case study: Thüringen, Germany; Case study: Limerick, Ireland; Case study: Merseyside, England; Developing European regions? Comparative governance, policy networks and European integration; Bibliography; Index.

    Biography

    Maura Adshead is Lecturer in Politics and Public Administration in the Department of Government and Society at the University of Limerick, Ireland. She completed her doctoral studies with the University of Liverpool and was awarded the Sir Walter Bagehot Prize for the best dissertation in public administration for 1999 by the Political Studies Association of the UK. Before moving to Limerick, she was Lecturer in Comparative European Politics at the Department of Politics, University of Dundee. Prior to her doctoral research, she was employed as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Essex. UK

    ’Building on the literatures of multi-level governance, policy network analysis and neo-functionalism, this book explores the impact of the European Union upon domestic policy processes in Germany, Ireland and Britain. It aims to identify ways of measuring the extent of European integration and succeeds very well in doing this. It is well-written, coherently argued, and reveals a thorough analytical and empirical grasp of the material.’ Professor Simon Bulmer, University of Manchester, UK ’Destined to become the standard text on regional governance in western Europe...this book offers a skilful exposition of governance networks in different national contexts. It makes a genuine contribution to theorising about multi-level governance.' Stephen Padgett, Professor of Politics, University of Strathclyde, Scotland ’Developing European Regions? is an excellent study that deserves to be read widely...Developing European Regions? is very well written, clearly and concisely argued and Adshead displays a mastery of both theoretical and empirical detail.’ International Studies Review ’This clear, through and well-written book...makes a useful analytical contribution to the fields of policy networks, multi-level governance and European integration.’ West European Politics