Papers, ongoing projects by matia vannoni
Under Review in Public Administration
This article examines the career consequences for managers in private companies of having work ex... more This article examines the career consequences for managers in private companies of having work experience in the public or no-profit sector. Findings suggest that work experience in other sectors has negative career outcomes for private managers: managers with experience in the public and no-profit sector are less likely to advance in their careers, than those with none. This negative effect becomes stronger when the stage of the career at which the manager had experience in the public sector is taken into consideration. Indeed, recent experience in other sectors has strong negative effects on career progression. The authors conclude that in private companies sector switching, especially if recent, does not pay off, differently from what happens in public organizations. This article provides the first large-N analysis of sector switching and career progression in the private sector, thus contributing to the study of the interaction between the public and the private sector, central to the public management literature. Moreover, the findings elicit interesting implications for talent management and for the phenomenon of revolving doors.
Business and Society
Taking a micro-capability approach to Corporate Political Activity (CPA), this paper explores the... more Taking a micro-capability approach to Corporate Political Activity (CPA), this paper explores the strategic management of government affairs in companies active in the European Union (EU). The paper relies on a unique large-N dataset on the functioning and staffing of EU government affairs. The analysis shows that companies delegate government affairs functions to in-house managers with specific competences, who stay in office for long periods and who have an extensive knowledge of the core competences of the company, thanks to their often technical educational background or work experience in the private sector. These findings suggest that how companies strategically manage government affairs in Brussels depends on the distinct EU business-government relations, which are based on trust and the exchange of technical information.
Under Review in the Political Methodologist
The social background of elites and their career progression in parliaments are classic
topics i... more The social background of elites and their career progression in parliaments are classic
topics in political science, but how researchers measure careers has remained static
for decades. This paper introduces sequence analysis, used in labour market studies,
which can offer a more fine-grained measurement of political careers. The method
conceives career paths as sequences of elements where not only do elements composing
a sequence matter but also their order and duration. We apply this method to a new
dataset of British Members of Parliament to show the variety of paths of their careers.
We deploy the metaphor of proto-stars that can evolve into various types of stars, such
as red dwarfs and supernovas, to depict political careers. Using this method, we also
test out standard assumptions of the literature on British parliamentary elites and
provide interesting findings on how the social and professional backgrounds of MPs
affect their career progression in the House of Commons.
This paper brings theoretical consciousness into the analysis of interest group influence as a pr... more This paper brings theoretical consciousness into the analysis of interest group influence as a precondition for a more nuanced methodological debate. The literature has, indeed, slowly but ineluctably leaned towards preference attainment as the main approach to investigate influence. Nonetheless, the difference between preference attainment and influence has hitherto been overlooked as well as the theoretical premises which underpin preference attainment. In this vein, I argue that preference attainment is a theoretical approach to account for whether and to what extent policy outputs move towards interest groups’ preferences. This approach can be used to infer influence only in combination with different methods, such as large N observational studies or process tracing, which in turn rely on different modes of causal inference. Furthermore, in discussing the theoretical premises of preference attainment, I argue that the unspecified conceptualization of the political space embraced by studies using this approach has hitherto so far significantly limited research. A more nuanced discussion on the premises underpinning preference attainment, such as the dimensionality and the alternative specification of the political space, allows the literature to move the discussion to the methodological level and employ more sophisticated methods. Under this lightIn this vein, I propose an ex post methodology to the dimensionality of the political space and, more specifically, data reduction analysis as the optimal method to obtain a representation of the political space and thus a valid and reliable measure of preference attainment. The new theoretical and analytical tools are then applied to a case study in the last section for illustrative purposes.
This article investigates the revolving doors phenomenon in the European Union (EU). It proposes ... more This article investigates the revolving doors phenomenon in the European Union (EU). It proposes a management approach that treats this phenomenon as a form of corporate political activity through which companies try to gain access to decision makers. By using sequence analysis to examine the career paths of almost 300 EU affairs managers based in public and private companies across 26 countries, three different ideal-typical managers are identified: those EU affairs managers coming from EU institutions and public affairs; those who make a career through the private sector; and those who establish themselves in national political institutions. This identification confirms that EU institutions need different types of information and companies need EU affairs managers with different professional backgrounds able to provide it. Rather than observing a revolving door of EU officials into EU government affairs, what the
authors term ‘sliding doors’ – namely the separation of careers, especially between the public and private sectors – is discerned.
How effective are systems of transparency, such as Freedom of Information (FOI) requests? The amb... more How effective are systems of transparency, such as Freedom of Information (FOI) requests? The ambitious aims of FOI laws hinge on whether requests produce the desired information for the citizens or groups that use them. The question is whether such legally mandated requests work better than more informal mechanisms. Despite the high hopes of advocates, organizational routines, lack of awareness or resistance may limit legal access and public bodies may seek to comply minimally
rather than behave in concordance with the spirit of the law. This article reports a field experiment that compared FOI requests and informal nonlegal asks to assess which is more effective in accessing information from English parish councils. The basic premise of statutory access is borne out. FOI requests are more effective than simple asks and the size or preexisting level of openness of a body appears to make little difference to their responsiveness. FOI requests are more effective in encouraging bodies to do more than the law asks (concordance) than encouraging more minimal levels of legal cooperation, when a body simply fulfils its obligations to varying degrees (compliance). This finding indicates high levels of support for FOI once it is embedded within the system.
Increasing attention has been paid to interest group influence in the last decades. Nonetheless, ... more Increasing attention has been paid to interest group influence in the last decades. Nonetheless, the literature has hitherto theoretically and analytically focused on who exerts influence overlooking on what, when and how influence is exerted. By replicating the analysis in Bernhagen (2009) this works aims to bring the what, when and how questions back into the analysis of interest group influence. In doing so, I provide a more nuanced discussion on politics as being ‘about who gets what, when and how’ (Lasswell, 1936). Aloof from any pretence of conclusiveness, preliminary findings show that not only are those questions worth of investigation per se but also that they potentially have a strong impact on the who question.
ABSTRACT Although the EU provides valuable political opportunities for business, firms act at Eur... more ABSTRACT Although the EU provides valuable political opportunities for business, firms act at European level in different degrees and in different ways. This variation in the Europeanization of business has so far been partially overlooked by the literature. In this work I propose an institutionalist theory of the Europeanization of business by focusing on how national political institutions mediate the impact of the institutional structure of the EU on business behaviour. Findings from a large-N analysis across several countries demonstrate that firms in decentralized countries tend to be more active at EU level. National political institutions affect also how firms act at EU level. Indeed, firms tend to differentiate their lobbying portfolio across venues: those used to act individually at national level tend to act collectively at EU level. This work aims at a more nuanced institutionalist account of Europeanization, by bridging the gap between the traditional literature on comparative politics and the one on European interest representation.
This article discusses two of the most used methods of comparative case
study research, namely, ... more This article discusses two of the most used methods of comparative case
study research, namely, John Stuart Mill’s (Millian) method of agreement and
the method of difference. In doing so, it claims that those methods allow social
research to progress theoretically and empirically if the latter is assessed
through the epistemological framework of the research program. The latter
represents a series of guidelines to assay the progress of science provided
by Imre Lakatos’s philosophy of science. In fact, those two methods can be
used according to two methodologies, namely, concept formation and causal
inference, which in turn perform specific functions essential for social research
to develop theoretically and empirically in line with the guidelines established
by the research program. In conclusion, a more nuanced discussion of the
link between epistemology, methodology, and methods is needed to fully
appreciate what comparative case study research is good for.
"Executive Summary This article argues for a more thorough analysis of the
dynamics of corporate... more "Executive Summary This article argues for a more thorough analysis of the
dynamics of corporate lobbying within the European Union (EU). Although there
is broad consensus among scholars on the emergence of a new type of European
lobbying, studies have not sufficiently addressed the underlying economic rationale.
Indeed, many authors emphasise the shift towards a system based on direct lobbying;
however, these concentre only on systemic and non-economic causes. Direct
lobbying dynamics are perceived mainly in two ways: either as a consequence of
a conscious political strategy of the European institutions in response to the
‘interest overload’ of the mid-1990s or as a normal phase of the development of
interest group populations. Advocating an economics-based analytical approach to
European corporate lobbying, this contribution to the debate provides one of the
very first attempts to uncover the influence of economic factors on direct corporate
lobbying by building on the seminal work proposed by Bernhagen and Mitchell.
These authors, very familiar with the American tradition of corporate lobbying
studies, were the first to apply a ‘standard model of corporate political behaviour’
to the European context by examining the various determinants of direct lobbying.
This article goes further: it analyses the empirical database constructed by
Bernhagen and Mitchell, with a multi-dimensional proxy of corporate lobbying.
Indeed, the main contribution of this study is in its analysis, namely, the
operationalisation of the dependent variable ‘direct lobbying’. It proposes a multistrategy/
multi-venue operationalisation of the dependent variable aiming to
overcome the pitfalls that characterise dichotomous and uni-dimensional operational
definitions, in order to answer the research question: ‘What are the economic
determinants of direct corporate lobbying in the EU?’ Such a multi-dimensional
operationalisation of the dependent variable has required the unpacking of some of
the elements taken for granted in the discussion on corporate lobbying. The
discussion argues that the researcher needs to take into consideration the various
direct lobbying strategies and their relative weights (that is, the multi-strategy
operationalisation). For example, accreditation to the EP is not equal to the
establishment of a company representation office in Brussels. Furthermore, another
possible level of action of a firm’s strategy, namely, the industry one, should also be
considered (that is, the multi-venue operationalisation): direct lobbying should be analysed as a preference over other lobbying approaches rather than in absolute
terms. The findings show how such an expanded operationalisation casts light on
the economic determinants of European corporate lobbying. First of all, the
Olsonian argument finds empirical support: industry concentration determines
lobbying strategies, indeed. Second, asset mobility/specificity influences a firm’s
preference to lobby directly vis-a`-vis other venues.
Keywords:
European union; corporate lobbying; Olsonian argument; collective
action problems; factor endowments trade theories; asset specificity"
Other Publications by matia vannoni
Abstract: This paper argues in favour of a more thorough analysis of a specific set of dynamics t... more Abstract: This paper argues in favour of a more thorough analysis of a specific set of dynamics taking
place in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), the latter being conceived as an informal organizational
framework aimed at mutual learning (de Burca and Zeitlin, 2003) and policy change (Dolowitz and Marsh,
2000; Radaelli, 2000). The aim of this paper is to uncover the missing link between these two elements, which
has hitherto been black -boxed by the literature. Theoretical tools from International Relations (IR) theories (i.e.
constructivist institutionalism) are borrowed in order to circumvent such a fallacy. The premises are the same as
the ones hitherto employed by scholars studying the OMC (e.g. Jacobsson, 2004): can norms and values assume
a binding character even outside the ‘territorially bounded democratic government’ (Héritier and Lehmkuhl,
2008) and thus leading to policy change? If so, how does this phenomenon take place? Nevertheless, the
approach is different, in that it builds on two closely interrelated factors: the concept of socialisation with its
micro-processes (Johnston, 2001; Johnston, 2008) and the institutional characteristics of social environments
(Rogowski, 1999). Accordingly, this paper will address the question: is the OMC in European employment
policy a social environment conducive of socialisation?
This article focuses on one of the most salient aspects of the EU-ACP relations, namely the condi... more This article focuses on one of the most salient aspects of the EU-ACP relations, namely the conditionality of aid assistance
and it traces the origins of conditionality in the influence of the neoliberal doctrine widespread within the World
Bank. The analysis of the World Bank as a social environment bolstered by the use of cognitive mapping of assertions of
European officials and official documents is used to appraise the functioning of the microprocesses of socialisation. Accordingly,
with a structure-centred constructivist approach this article argues that the EU development policy toward the
ACP countries was influenced by the conceptions and practices within the World Bank. Nevertheless, the novelty of the
approach utilised here is the focus on the mechanisms of propelling of the socialised norms and doctrines rather than
their content: a thorough analysis of the microprocesses of socialisation is applied to the World Bank. The acknowledgment
of the origins of the conditionality, which has become typical of the EU’s development policy, is crucial in order to
appreciate the history and the future of the relations between the EU and its former colonies.
This paper analyses the influence monopolistic competition and intra-industry trade (IIT) exert o... more This paper analyses the influence monopolistic competition and intra-industry trade (IIT) exert on trade policy lobbying. More specifically, it concentres on how firms producing in monopolistic competition and trading in IIT act in the political arena: the argument is that the type of production and accordingly, the type of trade where a firm is embedded determine its lobbying strategies. Monopolistic competition and IIT, the latter conceived as the “simultaneous import and export of commodities classified in the same industry or product group” (Greenway and Milner, 1983 p.900), fragment business interests thus incentivising individual firms to run alone in the lobbying arena. As a result, lobbying becomes a private good (Gilligan, 1997) thus triggering direct lobbying dynamics. A case study is employed to prove this argument: the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) is taken into consideration in order to test whether firms active in IIT between the US and EU employ direct lobbying strategies in trade policy.
Conference Attendance by matia vannoni
Abstract : This paper argues in favour of a more thorough analysis of a specific set of dynamics ... more Abstract : This paper argues in favour of a more thorough analysis of a specific set of dynamics taking place
in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), the latter being conceived as an informal organizational
framework aimed at mutual learning (de Burca and Zeitlin, 2003) and policy change (Dolowitz and Marsh,
2000; Radaelli, 2000). The aim of this paper is to uncover the missing link between these two elements,
which has hitherto been black-boxed by the literature. Theoretical tools from socialisation theories in
International Relations (IR) are borrowed in order to circumvent such a fallacy. The premises are the same
as the ones hitherto employed by scholars of the OMC (e.g. Jacobsson, 2004; Bulmer and Padgett, 2004):
can norms and values assume a binding character even outside hierarchic forms of governance and thus
leading to policy change? If so, how does this phenomenon occur? Nevertheless, the approach is different, in
that it builds on two closely interrelated factors: the concept of socialisation with its micro-processes
(Johnston, 2001; Johnston, 2008) and the institutional characteristics of social environments (Rogowski,
1999; Checkel, 1999). Accordingly, this paper will address the question: is the OMC in European
employment policy a social environment conducive of socialisation?
The term ‘failed state’ and the related jargon has come to the fore in the last two decades both ... more The term ‘failed state’ and the related jargon has come to the fore in the last two decades both in
the academic and in the policy-making fora. Given its diffusion, it is noteworthy analysing such a
term and the implications it bears. After a short introduction in which the term is inserted in its
historical and cultural background, the theoretical approaches related to this field of studies are
taken into consideration. Then, the most diffused stream of studies, the one which is more
interconnected with policy-makers, is analysed in order to uncover the factors which led to its
creation. This paper calls into question the analytical validity of the term failed state as it has been
used by the aforementioned stream of though, arguing that its creation was inextricably related to a
phenomenon typical of the beginning and the end of the Cold War: the securization of
underdevelopment. Accordingly, the concept of failed state is analysed as a discursive construction
rather than an analytical tool investigating thus the mechanisms whereby it was created and
diffused. Then, the final section provides a general overview on the consequences of the use of such
a term in the policy-making arenas.
This paper stems from the theoretical necessity of filling a major gap in the literature on Europ... more This paper stems from the theoretical necessity of filling a major gap in the literature on European (business) lobbying: the isolation of this scholarship from the mainstream narrative of contemporary European studies, namely the concept of ‘governance’. Accordingly, the theoretical model constructed hereafter builds extensively not only on the informational lobbying model, considered as the most appropriate for the European reality, but also on various theorisations of the principal-agent approach arguing, indeed, that the latter cannot be disentangled from the mode of governance in which it is in place. The result is the creation of a novel and dynamic principal-agent model along with an horizontal conceptualisation of accountability employed to analyse the informational lobbying system in place between the Commission and interest groups. By focusing on a case study, namely the Commission expert groups, this paper uncovers the determinants of the access to such groups, namely why certain (few) firms belong to the ‘insider club’ and why others (many) are excluded. The empirical results speak volume confirming that the Commission by regulating the access to its expert groups acts according to a dynamic principal-agent model fostering thus the creation of a European business lobbying system characterised by direct dynamics, European identity building, transparency and credibility.
"In the last two decades policy change has come predominantly to the fore, especially as one of t... more "In the last two decades policy change has come predominantly to the fore, especially as one of the central foci of analysis of what is labelled ‘new institutionalism’ (March and Olsen, 1984; Hall and Taylor, 1996). Nonetheless, theoretical and empirical investigation have hitherto concentred on the macro level providing a ‘stability biased’ and ‘punctuated view’ of politics. I argue that in order to properly theorise and analyse policy change the level of analysis needs to shift towards the micro level. In doing so, I focus on policy-making (or analysis, in Lindlom’s, 1979, terms) and I introduce an ‘information signalling’ model of policy-making where interest groups represent the primary information sources for decision-makers. The argument is that the more concentrated is the network of interest groups on which decision-makers rely, the more homogenous information signals will be and the more policy-making will tend towards ‘simple incrementalism’ (Lindblom, 1959; 1979) which is arguable associated with an incremental form of policy change. I conclude with an exploratory analysis which provides preliminary empirical evidence for that model. Indeed, the findings suggest a relationship between the homogeneity of the network of interest groups on which decision-makers in a policy area rely and the type of policy change along with its degree therein.
This work proceeds as follows. Firstly, an overview of the major characteristics of the variants of the new institutionalism and how they perceive politics is provided. The main institutionalist accounts are arguably either blind to change or they perceive politics as punctuated by sporadic but radical changes. In other words, rational choice institutionalism is ‘stability biased’ showing difficulties in accounting for change whereas the historical variant conceives politics as a flow of events punctuated by sporadic and exogenous shocks which trigger radical changes. The ensuing section emphasises the necessity to shift the focus of the analysis to the micro-level overcoming thus both such a static view of politics and such a dichotomous conceptualisation of change: the researcher should concentre on how policy-makers decide. In doing so, the necessity to consider the role of interest groups as the main information sources of the decision-makers is pinpointed. The following section presents the information signalling model of policy-making which accounts for the relationship between the homogeneity of information signals received by policy-makers, the predominant type of policy-making in place and thus the type and degree of policy change. From such a theoretical model two hypotheses are drawn and they are tested (in a preliminary manner) in the last section.
"
Interest group influence has become what the Higgs boson represented for physics until very recen... more Interest group influence has become what the Higgs boson represented for physics until very recently: something which is crucial for the discipline, about whose existence researchers are sure but which they do not know how to detect. Although the study of power is one of the core tenets of social sciences attention on this topic has recently revamped in the interest representation literature: the recent increase in manuscripts, special issues in academic journals, workshops and conferences dedicated to this issue is telling in this respect. Nonetheless, scholars have hitherto struggled in progressing research in this field mainly due to epistemological, theoretical and methodological confusion. In other words, researchers do not agree on what influence is, on how can they measure it and with what. Different conceptualizations of interest group influence have been analysed with different approaches and the discussion in the literature has prematurely moved to the methodological level.
In this vein, this paper brings epistemological and theoretical consciousness into the analysis of interest group influence as a precondition for a methodological debate. The literature has, indeed, slowly but ineluctably leaned towards preference attainment as the main theoretical approach to measure influence in the past years neglecting though the epistemological and theoretical premises which underpin this approach. In discussing its premises, I argue that they can be relaxed in order to make it accountable for two types of power which have hitherto received separate treatment: the first face of power and the second face of power. In fact, the unspecified spatial and temporal conceptualization of the political space embraced by studies using this approach has hitherto significantly limited research. This in turn allows the literature to move the discussion to the methodological level and employ more sophisticated methods.
The first section starts by introducing preference attainment as a theoretical approach along with its premises. The discussion proceeds to the presentation of the two faces of power and how they can be analysed from a preference attainment approach only if its theoretical premises are relaxed. The modifications to be made to preference attainment are discussed in the ensuing section: the temporal and spatial aspects of the political space represent the focus of the discussion. The following section concludes by introducing data reduction through scaling as the most appropriate methodology for preference attainment. The theoretically and methodologically rejuvenated preference attainment approach is then applied to a case: the lobbying dynamics in the EU directive banning tobacco advertisement
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Papers, ongoing projects by matia vannoni
topics in political science, but how researchers measure careers has remained static
for decades. This paper introduces sequence analysis, used in labour market studies,
which can offer a more fine-grained measurement of political careers. The method
conceives career paths as sequences of elements where not only do elements composing
a sequence matter but also their order and duration. We apply this method to a new
dataset of British Members of Parliament to show the variety of paths of their careers.
We deploy the metaphor of proto-stars that can evolve into various types of stars, such
as red dwarfs and supernovas, to depict political careers. Using this method, we also
test out standard assumptions of the literature on British parliamentary elites and
provide interesting findings on how the social and professional backgrounds of MPs
affect their career progression in the House of Commons.
authors term ‘sliding doors’ – namely the separation of careers, especially between the public and private sectors – is discerned.
rather than behave in concordance with the spirit of the law. This article reports a field experiment that compared FOI requests and informal nonlegal asks to assess which is more effective in accessing information from English parish councils. The basic premise of statutory access is borne out. FOI requests are more effective than simple asks and the size or preexisting level of openness of a body appears to make little difference to their responsiveness. FOI requests are more effective in encouraging bodies to do more than the law asks (concordance) than encouraging more minimal levels of legal cooperation, when a body simply fulfils its obligations to varying degrees (compliance). This finding indicates high levels of support for FOI once it is embedded within the system.
study research, namely, John Stuart Mill’s (Millian) method of agreement and
the method of difference. In doing so, it claims that those methods allow social
research to progress theoretically and empirically if the latter is assessed
through the epistemological framework of the research program. The latter
represents a series of guidelines to assay the progress of science provided
by Imre Lakatos’s philosophy of science. In fact, those two methods can be
used according to two methodologies, namely, concept formation and causal
inference, which in turn perform specific functions essential for social research
to develop theoretically and empirically in line with the guidelines established
by the research program. In conclusion, a more nuanced discussion of the
link between epistemology, methodology, and methods is needed to fully
appreciate what comparative case study research is good for.
dynamics of corporate lobbying within the European Union (EU). Although there
is broad consensus among scholars on the emergence of a new type of European
lobbying, studies have not sufficiently addressed the underlying economic rationale.
Indeed, many authors emphasise the shift towards a system based on direct lobbying;
however, these concentre only on systemic and non-economic causes. Direct
lobbying dynamics are perceived mainly in two ways: either as a consequence of
a conscious political strategy of the European institutions in response to the
‘interest overload’ of the mid-1990s or as a normal phase of the development of
interest group populations. Advocating an economics-based analytical approach to
European corporate lobbying, this contribution to the debate provides one of the
very first attempts to uncover the influence of economic factors on direct corporate
lobbying by building on the seminal work proposed by Bernhagen and Mitchell.
These authors, very familiar with the American tradition of corporate lobbying
studies, were the first to apply a ‘standard model of corporate political behaviour’
to the European context by examining the various determinants of direct lobbying.
This article goes further: it analyses the empirical database constructed by
Bernhagen and Mitchell, with a multi-dimensional proxy of corporate lobbying.
Indeed, the main contribution of this study is in its analysis, namely, the
operationalisation of the dependent variable ‘direct lobbying’. It proposes a multistrategy/
multi-venue operationalisation of the dependent variable aiming to
overcome the pitfalls that characterise dichotomous and uni-dimensional operational
definitions, in order to answer the research question: ‘What are the economic
determinants of direct corporate lobbying in the EU?’ Such a multi-dimensional
operationalisation of the dependent variable has required the unpacking of some of
the elements taken for granted in the discussion on corporate lobbying. The
discussion argues that the researcher needs to take into consideration the various
direct lobbying strategies and their relative weights (that is, the multi-strategy
operationalisation). For example, accreditation to the EP is not equal to the
establishment of a company representation office in Brussels. Furthermore, another
possible level of action of a firm’s strategy, namely, the industry one, should also be
considered (that is, the multi-venue operationalisation): direct lobbying should be analysed as a preference over other lobbying approaches rather than in absolute
terms. The findings show how such an expanded operationalisation casts light on
the economic determinants of European corporate lobbying. First of all, the
Olsonian argument finds empirical support: industry concentration determines
lobbying strategies, indeed. Second, asset mobility/specificity influences a firm’s
preference to lobby directly vis-a`-vis other venues.
Keywords:
European union; corporate lobbying; Olsonian argument; collective
action problems; factor endowments trade theories; asset specificity"
Other Publications by matia vannoni
place in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), the latter being conceived as an informal organizational
framework aimed at mutual learning (de Burca and Zeitlin, 2003) and policy change (Dolowitz and Marsh,
2000; Radaelli, 2000). The aim of this paper is to uncover the missing link between these two elements, which
has hitherto been black -boxed by the literature. Theoretical tools from International Relations (IR) theories (i.e.
constructivist institutionalism) are borrowed in order to circumvent such a fallacy. The premises are the same as
the ones hitherto employed by scholars studying the OMC (e.g. Jacobsson, 2004): can norms and values assume
a binding character even outside the ‘territorially bounded democratic government’ (Héritier and Lehmkuhl,
2008) and thus leading to policy change? If so, how does this phenomenon take place? Nevertheless, the
approach is different, in that it builds on two closely interrelated factors: the concept of socialisation with its
micro-processes (Johnston, 2001; Johnston, 2008) and the institutional characteristics of social environments
(Rogowski, 1999). Accordingly, this paper will address the question: is the OMC in European employment
policy a social environment conducive of socialisation?
and it traces the origins of conditionality in the influence of the neoliberal doctrine widespread within the World
Bank. The analysis of the World Bank as a social environment bolstered by the use of cognitive mapping of assertions of
European officials and official documents is used to appraise the functioning of the microprocesses of socialisation. Accordingly,
with a structure-centred constructivist approach this article argues that the EU development policy toward the
ACP countries was influenced by the conceptions and practices within the World Bank. Nevertheless, the novelty of the
approach utilised here is the focus on the mechanisms of propelling of the socialised norms and doctrines rather than
their content: a thorough analysis of the microprocesses of socialisation is applied to the World Bank. The acknowledgment
of the origins of the conditionality, which has become typical of the EU’s development policy, is crucial in order to
appreciate the history and the future of the relations between the EU and its former colonies.
Conference Attendance by matia vannoni
in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), the latter being conceived as an informal organizational
framework aimed at mutual learning (de Burca and Zeitlin, 2003) and policy change (Dolowitz and Marsh,
2000; Radaelli, 2000). The aim of this paper is to uncover the missing link between these two elements,
which has hitherto been black-boxed by the literature. Theoretical tools from socialisation theories in
International Relations (IR) are borrowed in order to circumvent such a fallacy. The premises are the same
as the ones hitherto employed by scholars of the OMC (e.g. Jacobsson, 2004; Bulmer and Padgett, 2004):
can norms and values assume a binding character even outside hierarchic forms of governance and thus
leading to policy change? If so, how does this phenomenon occur? Nevertheless, the approach is different, in
that it builds on two closely interrelated factors: the concept of socialisation with its micro-processes
(Johnston, 2001; Johnston, 2008) and the institutional characteristics of social environments (Rogowski,
1999; Checkel, 1999). Accordingly, this paper will address the question: is the OMC in European
employment policy a social environment conducive of socialisation?
the academic and in the policy-making fora. Given its diffusion, it is noteworthy analysing such a
term and the implications it bears. After a short introduction in which the term is inserted in its
historical and cultural background, the theoretical approaches related to this field of studies are
taken into consideration. Then, the most diffused stream of studies, the one which is more
interconnected with policy-makers, is analysed in order to uncover the factors which led to its
creation. This paper calls into question the analytical validity of the term failed state as it has been
used by the aforementioned stream of though, arguing that its creation was inextricably related to a
phenomenon typical of the beginning and the end of the Cold War: the securization of
underdevelopment. Accordingly, the concept of failed state is analysed as a discursive construction
rather than an analytical tool investigating thus the mechanisms whereby it was created and
diffused. Then, the final section provides a general overview on the consequences of the use of such
a term in the policy-making arenas.
This work proceeds as follows. Firstly, an overview of the major characteristics of the variants of the new institutionalism and how they perceive politics is provided. The main institutionalist accounts are arguably either blind to change or they perceive politics as punctuated by sporadic but radical changes. In other words, rational choice institutionalism is ‘stability biased’ showing difficulties in accounting for change whereas the historical variant conceives politics as a flow of events punctuated by sporadic and exogenous shocks which trigger radical changes. The ensuing section emphasises the necessity to shift the focus of the analysis to the micro-level overcoming thus both such a static view of politics and such a dichotomous conceptualisation of change: the researcher should concentre on how policy-makers decide. In doing so, the necessity to consider the role of interest groups as the main information sources of the decision-makers is pinpointed. The following section presents the information signalling model of policy-making which accounts for the relationship between the homogeneity of information signals received by policy-makers, the predominant type of policy-making in place and thus the type and degree of policy change. From such a theoretical model two hypotheses are drawn and they are tested (in a preliminary manner) in the last section.
"
In this vein, this paper brings epistemological and theoretical consciousness into the analysis of interest group influence as a precondition for a methodological debate. The literature has, indeed, slowly but ineluctably leaned towards preference attainment as the main theoretical approach to measure influence in the past years neglecting though the epistemological and theoretical premises which underpin this approach. In discussing its premises, I argue that they can be relaxed in order to make it accountable for two types of power which have hitherto received separate treatment: the first face of power and the second face of power. In fact, the unspecified spatial and temporal conceptualization of the political space embraced by studies using this approach has hitherto significantly limited research. This in turn allows the literature to move the discussion to the methodological level and employ more sophisticated methods.
The first section starts by introducing preference attainment as a theoretical approach along with its premises. The discussion proceeds to the presentation of the two faces of power and how they can be analysed from a preference attainment approach only if its theoretical premises are relaxed. The modifications to be made to preference attainment are discussed in the ensuing section: the temporal and spatial aspects of the political space represent the focus of the discussion. The following section concludes by introducing data reduction through scaling as the most appropriate methodology for preference attainment. The theoretically and methodologically rejuvenated preference attainment approach is then applied to a case: the lobbying dynamics in the EU directive banning tobacco advertisement
topics in political science, but how researchers measure careers has remained static
for decades. This paper introduces sequence analysis, used in labour market studies,
which can offer a more fine-grained measurement of political careers. The method
conceives career paths as sequences of elements where not only do elements composing
a sequence matter but also their order and duration. We apply this method to a new
dataset of British Members of Parliament to show the variety of paths of their careers.
We deploy the metaphor of proto-stars that can evolve into various types of stars, such
as red dwarfs and supernovas, to depict political careers. Using this method, we also
test out standard assumptions of the literature on British parliamentary elites and
provide interesting findings on how the social and professional backgrounds of MPs
affect their career progression in the House of Commons.
authors term ‘sliding doors’ – namely the separation of careers, especially between the public and private sectors – is discerned.
rather than behave in concordance with the spirit of the law. This article reports a field experiment that compared FOI requests and informal nonlegal asks to assess which is more effective in accessing information from English parish councils. The basic premise of statutory access is borne out. FOI requests are more effective than simple asks and the size or preexisting level of openness of a body appears to make little difference to their responsiveness. FOI requests are more effective in encouraging bodies to do more than the law asks (concordance) than encouraging more minimal levels of legal cooperation, when a body simply fulfils its obligations to varying degrees (compliance). This finding indicates high levels of support for FOI once it is embedded within the system.
study research, namely, John Stuart Mill’s (Millian) method of agreement and
the method of difference. In doing so, it claims that those methods allow social
research to progress theoretically and empirically if the latter is assessed
through the epistemological framework of the research program. The latter
represents a series of guidelines to assay the progress of science provided
by Imre Lakatos’s philosophy of science. In fact, those two methods can be
used according to two methodologies, namely, concept formation and causal
inference, which in turn perform specific functions essential for social research
to develop theoretically and empirically in line with the guidelines established
by the research program. In conclusion, a more nuanced discussion of the
link between epistemology, methodology, and methods is needed to fully
appreciate what comparative case study research is good for.
dynamics of corporate lobbying within the European Union (EU). Although there
is broad consensus among scholars on the emergence of a new type of European
lobbying, studies have not sufficiently addressed the underlying economic rationale.
Indeed, many authors emphasise the shift towards a system based on direct lobbying;
however, these concentre only on systemic and non-economic causes. Direct
lobbying dynamics are perceived mainly in two ways: either as a consequence of
a conscious political strategy of the European institutions in response to the
‘interest overload’ of the mid-1990s or as a normal phase of the development of
interest group populations. Advocating an economics-based analytical approach to
European corporate lobbying, this contribution to the debate provides one of the
very first attempts to uncover the influence of economic factors on direct corporate
lobbying by building on the seminal work proposed by Bernhagen and Mitchell.
These authors, very familiar with the American tradition of corporate lobbying
studies, were the first to apply a ‘standard model of corporate political behaviour’
to the European context by examining the various determinants of direct lobbying.
This article goes further: it analyses the empirical database constructed by
Bernhagen and Mitchell, with a multi-dimensional proxy of corporate lobbying.
Indeed, the main contribution of this study is in its analysis, namely, the
operationalisation of the dependent variable ‘direct lobbying’. It proposes a multistrategy/
multi-venue operationalisation of the dependent variable aiming to
overcome the pitfalls that characterise dichotomous and uni-dimensional operational
definitions, in order to answer the research question: ‘What are the economic
determinants of direct corporate lobbying in the EU?’ Such a multi-dimensional
operationalisation of the dependent variable has required the unpacking of some of
the elements taken for granted in the discussion on corporate lobbying. The
discussion argues that the researcher needs to take into consideration the various
direct lobbying strategies and their relative weights (that is, the multi-strategy
operationalisation). For example, accreditation to the EP is not equal to the
establishment of a company representation office in Brussels. Furthermore, another
possible level of action of a firm’s strategy, namely, the industry one, should also be
considered (that is, the multi-venue operationalisation): direct lobbying should be analysed as a preference over other lobbying approaches rather than in absolute
terms. The findings show how such an expanded operationalisation casts light on
the economic determinants of European corporate lobbying. First of all, the
Olsonian argument finds empirical support: industry concentration determines
lobbying strategies, indeed. Second, asset mobility/specificity influences a firm’s
preference to lobby directly vis-a`-vis other venues.
Keywords:
European union; corporate lobbying; Olsonian argument; collective
action problems; factor endowments trade theories; asset specificity"
place in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), the latter being conceived as an informal organizational
framework aimed at mutual learning (de Burca and Zeitlin, 2003) and policy change (Dolowitz and Marsh,
2000; Radaelli, 2000). The aim of this paper is to uncover the missing link between these two elements, which
has hitherto been black -boxed by the literature. Theoretical tools from International Relations (IR) theories (i.e.
constructivist institutionalism) are borrowed in order to circumvent such a fallacy. The premises are the same as
the ones hitherto employed by scholars studying the OMC (e.g. Jacobsson, 2004): can norms and values assume
a binding character even outside the ‘territorially bounded democratic government’ (Héritier and Lehmkuhl,
2008) and thus leading to policy change? If so, how does this phenomenon take place? Nevertheless, the
approach is different, in that it builds on two closely interrelated factors: the concept of socialisation with its
micro-processes (Johnston, 2001; Johnston, 2008) and the institutional characteristics of social environments
(Rogowski, 1999). Accordingly, this paper will address the question: is the OMC in European employment
policy a social environment conducive of socialisation?
and it traces the origins of conditionality in the influence of the neoliberal doctrine widespread within the World
Bank. The analysis of the World Bank as a social environment bolstered by the use of cognitive mapping of assertions of
European officials and official documents is used to appraise the functioning of the microprocesses of socialisation. Accordingly,
with a structure-centred constructivist approach this article argues that the EU development policy toward the
ACP countries was influenced by the conceptions and practices within the World Bank. Nevertheless, the novelty of the
approach utilised here is the focus on the mechanisms of propelling of the socialised norms and doctrines rather than
their content: a thorough analysis of the microprocesses of socialisation is applied to the World Bank. The acknowledgment
of the origins of the conditionality, which has become typical of the EU’s development policy, is crucial in order to
appreciate the history and the future of the relations between the EU and its former colonies.
in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), the latter being conceived as an informal organizational
framework aimed at mutual learning (de Burca and Zeitlin, 2003) and policy change (Dolowitz and Marsh,
2000; Radaelli, 2000). The aim of this paper is to uncover the missing link between these two elements,
which has hitherto been black-boxed by the literature. Theoretical tools from socialisation theories in
International Relations (IR) are borrowed in order to circumvent such a fallacy. The premises are the same
as the ones hitherto employed by scholars of the OMC (e.g. Jacobsson, 2004; Bulmer and Padgett, 2004):
can norms and values assume a binding character even outside hierarchic forms of governance and thus
leading to policy change? If so, how does this phenomenon occur? Nevertheless, the approach is different, in
that it builds on two closely interrelated factors: the concept of socialisation with its micro-processes
(Johnston, 2001; Johnston, 2008) and the institutional characteristics of social environments (Rogowski,
1999; Checkel, 1999). Accordingly, this paper will address the question: is the OMC in European
employment policy a social environment conducive of socialisation?
the academic and in the policy-making fora. Given its diffusion, it is noteworthy analysing such a
term and the implications it bears. After a short introduction in which the term is inserted in its
historical and cultural background, the theoretical approaches related to this field of studies are
taken into consideration. Then, the most diffused stream of studies, the one which is more
interconnected with policy-makers, is analysed in order to uncover the factors which led to its
creation. This paper calls into question the analytical validity of the term failed state as it has been
used by the aforementioned stream of though, arguing that its creation was inextricably related to a
phenomenon typical of the beginning and the end of the Cold War: the securization of
underdevelopment. Accordingly, the concept of failed state is analysed as a discursive construction
rather than an analytical tool investigating thus the mechanisms whereby it was created and
diffused. Then, the final section provides a general overview on the consequences of the use of such
a term in the policy-making arenas.
This work proceeds as follows. Firstly, an overview of the major characteristics of the variants of the new institutionalism and how they perceive politics is provided. The main institutionalist accounts are arguably either blind to change or they perceive politics as punctuated by sporadic but radical changes. In other words, rational choice institutionalism is ‘stability biased’ showing difficulties in accounting for change whereas the historical variant conceives politics as a flow of events punctuated by sporadic and exogenous shocks which trigger radical changes. The ensuing section emphasises the necessity to shift the focus of the analysis to the micro-level overcoming thus both such a static view of politics and such a dichotomous conceptualisation of change: the researcher should concentre on how policy-makers decide. In doing so, the necessity to consider the role of interest groups as the main information sources of the decision-makers is pinpointed. The following section presents the information signalling model of policy-making which accounts for the relationship between the homogeneity of information signals received by policy-makers, the predominant type of policy-making in place and thus the type and degree of policy change. From such a theoretical model two hypotheses are drawn and they are tested (in a preliminary manner) in the last section.
"
In this vein, this paper brings epistemological and theoretical consciousness into the analysis of interest group influence as a precondition for a methodological debate. The literature has, indeed, slowly but ineluctably leaned towards preference attainment as the main theoretical approach to measure influence in the past years neglecting though the epistemological and theoretical premises which underpin this approach. In discussing its premises, I argue that they can be relaxed in order to make it accountable for two types of power which have hitherto received separate treatment: the first face of power and the second face of power. In fact, the unspecified spatial and temporal conceptualization of the political space embraced by studies using this approach has hitherto significantly limited research. This in turn allows the literature to move the discussion to the methodological level and employ more sophisticated methods.
The first section starts by introducing preference attainment as a theoretical approach along with its premises. The discussion proceeds to the presentation of the two faces of power and how they can be analysed from a preference attainment approach only if its theoretical premises are relaxed. The modifications to be made to preference attainment are discussed in the ensuing section: the temporal and spatial aspects of the political space represent the focus of the discussion. The following section concludes by introducing data reduction through scaling as the most appropriate methodology for preference attainment. The theoretically and methodologically rejuvenated preference attainment approach is then applied to a case: the lobbying dynamics in the EU directive banning tobacco advertisement