Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 13501760210139722, Feb 4, 2011
ABSTRACT This article poses the following question: Do national civil servants attending EU commi... more ABSTRACT This article poses the following question: Do national civil servants attending EU committees evoke supranational loyalties that transcend preestablished national and sectoral identities? Multiple institutional affiliations often trigger multiple identities. However, certain identities - like supranationalism - are fostered under particular institutional conditions. Three hypotheses on supranationalism are proposed. First, supranationalism reflects the EU membership of each nation-state. Second, intensive and sustained participation on EU committees among national civil servants leads to supranational allegiances among the participants. Finally, supranationalism is associated with the general lack of national coordination prior to EU committee meetings. The empirical analysis employs survey data of 160 Scandinavian government officials with various experience from EU committees. Additionally, forty-seven face-to-face interviews supplement the survey data. The main empirical observations are twofold. First, pre-established allegiances tend to exceed supranational identifications among national civil servants attending EU committees. Second, supranational allegiances are primarily enacted among government officials from EU member states and among officials who participate intensively in EU committees. Less empirical support is provided for the argument that supranationalism reflects the lack of ex ante national co-ordination mechanisms.
Whereas domestic public policy is increasingly penetrated by international organisations, domesti... more Whereas domestic public policy is increasingly penetrated by international organisations, domestic government institutions seem less adaptive. This puzzle triggers the following question: To what extent is the Europeanisation of domestic Research and Higher Educational policy (R&E policy) crafted by domestic government? Put more starkly, how intimate relationships exist between domestic government decision-making and domestic policy? The rationale of this article is to unpack two supplementary models of Europeanisation. First, a model of 'Europeanisation by innovation' derived from an organisation theory perspective emphasises a tight coupling of ministerial decision-making and R&E policy. Secondly, a model of 'Europeanisation by imitation' derived from a network approach advocates a loose coupling of government decision-making and R&E policy through transgovernmental processes of imitation. Reporting from the area of R&E policy and based on survey data on civil serv...
... all reluctant Europeans: Norway decided not to join the EU after two negative referenda, Swed... more ... all reluctant Europeans: Norway decided not to join the EU after two negative referenda, Sweden is a late-comer to the Union, and Denmark's membership is based on selective exceptions eg European monetary union, the CFSP. However, officials from small states tend to be ...
ABSTRACT The bureaucratic arms of modern international organizations increasingly consist of staf... more ABSTRACT The bureaucratic arms of modern international organizations increasingly consist of staff with ambiguous organizational affiliations. This article analyses the implications of this trend from the perspective of representative bureaucracy – using seconded national experts (SNEs) in the European Commission (Commission) as the empirical laboratory. Using a variety of datasets, we unveil Commission SNEs' profiles (to assess their passive representativeness) and link these profiles to their role perceptions (to evaluate their potential for active representation). This illustrates that Commission SNEs' background characteristics do not match those of their constituent population (i.e. the EU27 population) – suggesting a lack of passive representativeness. However, we also find that SNEs from countries favoring stronger national rather than European regulatory and policymaking powers are more likely to see themselves as a representative of their home country government. This suggests a potential for active representation in terms of SNEs' home country's policy preferences.
ABSTRACT Formulating and implementing public policy in Europe has historically been a core task o... more ABSTRACT Formulating and implementing public policy in Europe has historically been a core task of national administrations. This study suggests how this role has become challenged in a least likely policy field – foreign affairs. The ambition is to reassess the autonomy of the European External Action Service (EEAS) by examining actor-level autonomy of EEAS staff, while also suggesting key determinants thereof. Two conditions of actor-level autonomy are empirically illuminated: bureaucratic structure and the geographical location of the EEAS. Benefiting from two novel data sets which include a survey and elite interviews of EEAS officials, two empirical observations are highlighted. First, despite being an embryonic organization embedded in a field of core state powers, EEAS officials demonstrate substantial actor-level autonomy. Secondly, the behavioural autonomy of EEAS staff reflects primarily the supply of organizational capacities inside the EEAS, but much less the geographical location of staff. Actor-level autonomy is thus not only profound, but largely supplied by in-house organizational factors.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 13501760210139722, Feb 4, 2011
ABSTRACT This article poses the following question: Do national civil servants attending EU commi... more ABSTRACT This article poses the following question: Do national civil servants attending EU committees evoke supranational loyalties that transcend preestablished national and sectoral identities? Multiple institutional affiliations often trigger multiple identities. However, certain identities - like supranationalism - are fostered under particular institutional conditions. Three hypotheses on supranationalism are proposed. First, supranationalism reflects the EU membership of each nation-state. Second, intensive and sustained participation on EU committees among national civil servants leads to supranational allegiances among the participants. Finally, supranationalism is associated with the general lack of national coordination prior to EU committee meetings. The empirical analysis employs survey data of 160 Scandinavian government officials with various experience from EU committees. Additionally, forty-seven face-to-face interviews supplement the survey data. The main empirical observations are twofold. First, pre-established allegiances tend to exceed supranational identifications among national civil servants attending EU committees. Second, supranational allegiances are primarily enacted among government officials from EU member states and among officials who participate intensively in EU committees. Less empirical support is provided for the argument that supranationalism reflects the lack of ex ante national co-ordination mechanisms.
Whereas domestic public policy is increasingly penetrated by international organisations, domesti... more Whereas domestic public policy is increasingly penetrated by international organisations, domestic government institutions seem less adaptive. This puzzle triggers the following question: To what extent is the Europeanisation of domestic Research and Higher Educational policy (R&E policy) crafted by domestic government? Put more starkly, how intimate relationships exist between domestic government decision-making and domestic policy? The rationale of this article is to unpack two supplementary models of Europeanisation. First, a model of 'Europeanisation by innovation' derived from an organisation theory perspective emphasises a tight coupling of ministerial decision-making and R&E policy. Secondly, a model of 'Europeanisation by imitation' derived from a network approach advocates a loose coupling of government decision-making and R&E policy through transgovernmental processes of imitation. Reporting from the area of R&E policy and based on survey data on civil serv...
... all reluctant Europeans: Norway decided not to join the EU after two negative referenda, Swed... more ... all reluctant Europeans: Norway decided not to join the EU after two negative referenda, Sweden is a late-comer to the Union, and Denmark's membership is based on selective exceptions eg European monetary union, the CFSP. However, officials from small states tend to be ...
ABSTRACT The bureaucratic arms of modern international organizations increasingly consist of staf... more ABSTRACT The bureaucratic arms of modern international organizations increasingly consist of staff with ambiguous organizational affiliations. This article analyses the implications of this trend from the perspective of representative bureaucracy – using seconded national experts (SNEs) in the European Commission (Commission) as the empirical laboratory. Using a variety of datasets, we unveil Commission SNEs' profiles (to assess their passive representativeness) and link these profiles to their role perceptions (to evaluate their potential for active representation). This illustrates that Commission SNEs' background characteristics do not match those of their constituent population (i.e. the EU27 population) – suggesting a lack of passive representativeness. However, we also find that SNEs from countries favoring stronger national rather than European regulatory and policymaking powers are more likely to see themselves as a representative of their home country government. This suggests a potential for active representation in terms of SNEs' home country's policy preferences.
ABSTRACT Formulating and implementing public policy in Europe has historically been a core task o... more ABSTRACT Formulating and implementing public policy in Europe has historically been a core task of national administrations. This study suggests how this role has become challenged in a least likely policy field – foreign affairs. The ambition is to reassess the autonomy of the European External Action Service (EEAS) by examining actor-level autonomy of EEAS staff, while also suggesting key determinants thereof. Two conditions of actor-level autonomy are empirically illuminated: bureaucratic structure and the geographical location of the EEAS. Benefiting from two novel data sets which include a survey and elite interviews of EEAS officials, two empirical observations are highlighted. First, despite being an embryonic organization embedded in a field of core state powers, EEAS officials demonstrate substantial actor-level autonomy. Secondly, the behavioural autonomy of EEAS staff reflects primarily the supply of organizational capacities inside the EEAS, but much less the geographical location of staff. Actor-level autonomy is thus not only profound, but largely supplied by in-house organizational factors.
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Papers by Jarle Trondal