To what extent and how did the Covid-19-pandemic trigger the Europeanisation of public policy in the EU member states? This article addresses this question by exploring member states’ responses to the labour market implications of the pandemic. Although the EU due to its free movement principles in effect has a common labour market, labour market policies have remained in the hands of the member states. Nonetheless, we find that they responded in a surprisingly similar manner to rising unemployment caused by lockdowns. Was this policy change linked to Europeanisation processes, and if so, in what way? We find that member states’ responses were related both to economic incentives and to contingent learning playing out in largely informal settings at the EU level. Our findings shed light on how crises may function as a critical juncture that triggers policy change, and how the EU may play a key role in such change. Our study thus also adds insights to our understanding of the mechanisms that underpin Europeanisation, in particular by shedding light on the importance of informal learning processes and the influence of the European Commission also in formally less integrated policy areas.
Keywords: Covid‐19; crisis; European Commission; Europeanisation; learning; public policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:378-388 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Multi‐Level Governance Feedback and Health Care in Italy in the Aftermath of Covid‐19 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7356 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7356 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 365-377 Author-Name: David Natali Author-Workplace-Name: DIRPOLIS Institute, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy Author-Name: Emmanuele Pavolini Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Author-Name: Andrea Terlizzi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Florence, Italy Abstract: At the crossroads of EU studies and public policy analysis, a vast literature identifies global crises as one of the main triggers of change. The present article provides a test of this hypothesis in the case of health care in the aftermath of the pandemic crisis that hit Europe between 2020 and 2022. We use Italy as an extreme case, where both the magnitude of the Covid-19 outbreak and the effect of the pre-existent domestic cost-cutting strategy potentially opened a large window of opportunity for change. Through the lenses of historical institutionalism, we aim to shed light on policy change in multi-level health governance systems. Evidence collected through semi-structured interviews, triangulated with secondary sources, proves that the governance of health care in Italy has experienced no paradigmatic change. We show that “governance feedbacks” have reinforced pre-existing dynamics and inhibited more radical forms of change. Keywords: Covid‐19; EU governance; feedback; health care; historical institutionalism; Italy; policy change Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:365-377 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The European Green Deal Agenda After the Attack on Ukraine: Exogenous Shock Meets Policy‐Making Stability File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7343 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7343 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 352-364 Author-Name: Frank Wendler Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Sustainable Society Research, University of Hamburg, Germany Abstract: The present article investigates how the EU climate and energy governance framework launched by the European Green Deal has been affected by the exogenous shock of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine. Harnessing punctuated equilibrium theory, the theoretical approach applies its conceptual triad of policy images, venues, and feedback to the adoption of the current REPowerEU program as a critical test case of highly stable policy-making encountering a situation of exogenous shock. In the empirical part, a mixed-method content analysis of policy documents issued by the European Council and Commission from the adoption of the European Green Deal in 2019 to the current stage is presented to gauge the impact of the Russian attack on agenda-setting at the macro and meso-political levels of the EU. A second step evaluates how the expanded and more geopolitical policy image of the REPowerEU agenda is applied to extant governance processes. In this regard, the analysis identifies three factors limiting the impact of exogenous shock: the availability of three separate policy subsystems for the parallel processing of policy components, institutional safeguards for maintaining policy stability through supranational rules and provisions, and the critical function of the Commission in limiting revisions to a few targeted proposals. In conclusion, policy stability outweighs aspects of disruption and change, while the more diverse set of policy processes creates new challenges for the coherence of efforts to achieve decarbonization. Keywords: agenda‐setting; climate change; European Green Deal; punctuated equilibrium theory; REPowerEU Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:352-364 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: NextGenerationEU and the European Semester: Comparing National Plans and Country‐Specific Recommendations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7351 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7351 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 339-351 Author-Name: Mattia Guidi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social, Political, and Cognitive Sciences, University of Siena, Italy Author-Name: Michele Piccinetti Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social, Political, and Cognitive Sciences, University of Siena, Italy Author-Name: Luca Verzichelli Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social, Political, and Cognitive Sciences, University of Siena, Italy Abstract: This article examines the main features of the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) that member states have presented to access NextGenerationEU (NGEU) funds, and it explores the relationship between NGEU and the European Semester. Relying on a dataset collected for this purpose, which coded all RRPs and all recommendations received by the member states in the years preceding NGEU, we explore quantitatively the variation in the countries’ resource allocation and reform agendas and the congruence between RRPs and the recommendations issued in the European Semester. Our analysis reveals three key findings. First, substantial variation exists across member states, reflecting the diverse economic and political contexts shaped by a decade of crises. Second, by disaggregating RRPs into the six policy pillars indicated by the Commission, we show differences in the member states’ patterns of intervention. Third, we offer insights into the extent to which member states address the Semester recommendations. The data we present is a relevant tool for understanding NGEU and generating research questions aimed at exploring its nature and its implementation in the years to come. Keywords: conditionality; country‐specific recommendations; European Semester; NextGenerationEU Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:339-351 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The National Recovery and Resilience Plans: Towards a Next Generation of Fiscal Coordination? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7359 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7359 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 324-338 Author-Name: Matilde Ceron Author-Workplace-Name: Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Italy Abstract: The Recovery and Resilience Facility reflects unprecedented solidarity through common financing paired with an innovative governance framework. Member states can access grants and loans through the formulation of National Recovery and Resilience Plans, under a set of conditions that include minimum allocation targets and addressing country-specific recommendations. The analysis evaluates whether the governance of the Recovery and Resilience Facility mitigates one of the longstanding weaknesses of the Economic and Monetary Union architecture: fiscal coordination. Assessing the prevalence of green, digital, and social priorities in the (a) National Recovery and Resilience Plans, (b) the country-specific recommendations, and (c) party manifestos through a quantitative and qualitative text analysis shows some convergence toward supranational preferences, albeit only in the green domain. I provide preliminary evidence at the stage of the formulation of the plans of the effectiveness of the Recovery and Resilience Facility fiscal policy coordination by testing whether recovery agendas in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans reflect EU or national priorities. Deviating from the limited implementation of country-specific recommendations within the European Semester, the analysis indicates the governance of the Recovery and Resilience Facility orients the National Recovery and Resilience Plans toward fostering a green recovery. Findings contribute to the assessment of how pandemic recovery instruments innovate EU fiscal governance and longstanding discussions on the ineffectiveness of fiscal coordination within the Economic and Monetary Union, informing the ongoing debate on the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact and a permanent successor to the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Keywords: Covid‐19; fiscal coordination; Economic and Monetary Union; European Semester; National Recovery and Resilience Plans; NextGenerationEU; Recovery and Resilience Facility Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:324-338 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Crisis Learning or Reform Backlog? The European Parliament’s Treaty‐Change Proposals During the Polycrisis File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7326 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7326 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 311-323 Author-Name: Manuel Müller Author-Workplace-Name: Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Finland Abstract: In May 2022, the European Parliament (EP) launched a procedure to amend the EU treaties and began drafting a report with concrete reform proposals. In their resolution, EP members explicitly described this as a necessary response to recent crises (notably the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic, and climate change) as well as a follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe. However, the stated objectives of the reform, in particular more efficient and democratic EU decision-making, were not new but followed long-standing discourses on deepening EU integration. This raises the question of to what degree the EP’s initiative really reflected a lesson from recent crises—in line with a “failing forward” approach towards EU reform—or rather a “backlog” of reforms which had already been proposed before but whose implementation had been blocked by member states, and for which the crises only represented a window of opportunity. The article assesses the development of treaty change proposals by the EP and bodies close to it, comparing three comprehensive plans for institutional reform: the federalist Spinelli Group’s Fundamental Law for the EU (2013), the EP’s Verhofstadt Report (2017), and the EP’s latest Article 48 Report (2023). The comparison shows that, while the crises had an impact on the level of ambition in some policy areas, the EP’s general approach, especially on institutional issues, was characterised by a high degree of continuity. Keywords: crisis learning; European Parliament; EU treaty reform; institutional reform; polycrisis Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:311-323 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Recovery and Resilience Dialogues: Cheap Talk or Effective Oversight? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7344 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7344 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 297-310 Author-Name: Edoardo Bressanelli Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Law, Politics and Development (DIRPOLIS), Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy Author-Name: Nicola Chelotti Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance, Loughborough University, UK Author-Name: Matteo Nebbiai Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Economy, King’s College London, UK Abstract: The recovery and resilience dialogues were introduced by the regulation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and the first of such dialogues took place in May 2021. The European Parliament invites the Commission, approximately every two months, to exchange views on matters relating to the national recovery and resilience plans and progress in their implementation. Through an analysis of an original dataset composed of the questions asked by the MEPs in the 10 dialogues held between May 2021 and April 2023, this article provides a systematic empirical assessment of the European Parliament’s capacity to hold the Commission accountable. Drawing on the literature on the economic and monetary dialogues and adapting the operationalisation of key variables to the new instrument, this article shows that the recovery and resilience dialogues are an effective instrument for information exchange and debate, but they serve as a weak instrument of political accountability. Additionally, it casts new light on significant differences between MEPs: South and East European members are considerably more active than members from Northern Europe. At the same time, parliamentarians only occasionally ask questions targeting other member states. Keywords: accountability; European Commission; European Parliament; post‐pandemic recovery; recovery and resilience dialogues; Recovery and Resilience Facility Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:297-310 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Governing the EU’s Energy Crisis: The European Commission’s Geopolitical Turn and its Pitfalls File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7315 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7315 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 286-296 Author-Name: Marco Siddi Author-Workplace-Name: Finnish Institute of International Relations, Finland / Department of Political and Social Science, University of Cagliari, Italy Author-Name: Federica Prandin Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science, University of Helsinki, Finland Abstract: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been promoting the concept of a “geopolitical Commission” since her appointment in late 2019. Since then, successive crises—the Covid-19 pandemic, the ever-worsening climate crisis, and the war in Ukraine—have tested the Commission’s intention to turn the concept into practice. This is particularly evident in the field of energy politics following Russia’s attack on Ukraine. When the war started, Russia was the EU’s largest energy supplier. The EU’s desire to end its energy dependency on Russia called for “geopolitical actorness,” notably swift political and diplomatic initiatives to find alternative suppliers considering the rapidly changing geopolitical circumstances. To what extent and how did this occur? Did the Commission achieve its goal of becoming a geopolitical actor in the field of energy politics? What does geopolitical actorness imply for the EU’s energy policy and low-carbon transition? The article addresses these questions through an analysis of policy documents published by the von der Leyen Commission between 2019–2023, including the communications on the European Green Deal and Critical Raw Materials Resilience, the EU Hydrogen Strategy, the Global Gateway, the REPowerEU Plan, the External Energy Strategy, the Solar Energy Strategy, and the Green Deal Industrial Plan. The article argues that EU policy priorities progressively shifted from a focus on broad multilateral cooperation and open strategic autonomy to more narrowly defined strategic partnerships with “like-minded” Western and neighbouring countries. The 2022 war in Ukraine was a strong catalyst for this shift. Keywords: energy; European Commission; European Union; geopolitics; Russia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:286-296 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Institutional Ingredients of Polycrisis Management: Unpacking European Council’s Handling of the Energy Crisis File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7345 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7345 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 275-285 Author-Name: Sandrino Smeets Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Derek Beach Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark Abstract: This article analyses how the European Council and the institutional infrastructure that supports it have been managing the early stages of the energy crisis. This was the time when the European Council, as the “control room” of EU crisis management, was unable to come up with any solutions to high energy prices. It makes a methodological and empirical contribution to the debate on how the European Council system manages (poly)crises. Methodologically, we introduce the method of embedded process tracing to study EU crisis management from within. Embedded process tracing combines mainstream causal process tracing techniques with elements from interpretivist approaches, to deal with context dependency, case heterogeneity, and empirical density. Empirically, we offer a process-management analysis of the first nine months of the energy crisis. We delineate the roles of various actors and institutions: the president of the European Council, the Council Secretariat, the Commission president, and the Commission Services. We unpack the crucial ingredients of polycrisis management: how to get and keep an issue on the agenda, how to shape and steer European-Council-level debates and conclusions, and how to ensure a proper follow-up by the Commission and the Council. Finally, we re-assess the image of the malfunctioning control room and show the causal relevance of the European Council’s early performance. Keywords: energy crisis; EU institutions; European Council; polycrisis; process management Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:275-285 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: EU Renewable Energy Governance and the Ukraine War: Moving Ahead Through Strategic Flexibility? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7361 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7361 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 263-274 Author-Name: Aron Buzogány Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Forest, Environmental, and Natural Resource Policy, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Austria / Institute for Political Science, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary Author-Name: Stefan Ćetković Author-Workplace-Name: Munich School of Politics and Public Policy, Technical University of Munich, Germany / Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Tomas Maltby Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Economy, King’s College London, UK Abstract: When faced with highly heterogeneous national conditions and preferences, the EU has often resorted to differentiation to ensure political support for advancing common policies. Despite growing scholarly interest in differentiation in the EU, conceptual clarity and empirical evidence of different forms of differentiation are still in a nascent stage. Particularly the use of differentiation in times of crisis needs to be better understood. To address this research gap, we investigate differentiation in the EU renewable energy policy in response to the crisis stirred by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We find that the EU successfully used the Ukraine crisis to increase the ambition of renewable energy policy, but this was accompanied by various and often novel forms of differentiation. Rather than formally exempting countries from common EU provisions (differentiated integration), EU decision-makers strategically incorporated flexibility in implementation, often tailored to a few outlier countries. Strategic flexibility was instrumental in overcoming political disagreements among national governments and adopting a more ambitious and comprehensive renewable energy policy. Our findings contribute conceptually and empirically to understanding various forms of differentiation in EU policymaking and how they are employed to facilitate the building of political majorities during crises. Keywords: climate policy; differentiation; energy policy; European crisis; European Union; renewable energy; Ukraine war Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:263-274 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: One Crisis Is not Like Another: Exploring Different Shades of Crisis in the EU File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7349 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7349 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 252-262 Author-Name: Jan Hupkens Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), Maastricht University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Christine Neuhold Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), Maastricht University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Sophie Vanhoonacker Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), Maastricht University, The Netherlands Abstract: Against the background of more than a decade of crises in the EU and an increasing inflationary use of the term, this article contributes to the crisis literature in two ways. First, by presenting the state of the art in broader academic research on crises and crisis management, it explores how the more recent EU literature can benefit from this earlier work. At the same time, it also pays attention to the EU specificities and the implications in terms of research, especially with regard to studying actors and perceived threats. Here the unpacking of the well-established crisis definition of Boin et al. (2013), which builds on the work of Rosenthal et al. (1989), serves as a helpful starting point. Second, the contribution argues that one crisis is not like another and that crises can take different gradations. By distinguishing between mild, severe, and existential crises, it makes a first attempt to propose the key analytical dimensions that impact the gradation of a crisis. Building on the findings in EU crisis research, it distils the dimensions of severity, symmetry, and speed as defining characteristics. Depending on the crisis, the gradation of each of these dimensions ranges along a spectrum. In other words, there are different shades of crises. By being more explicit about the gradation, scholars can identify what type of crisis is at stake (i.e., whether the crisis under study is mild, severe, or existential in nature). This in turn has implications for questions such as by whom, how, and when a crisis needs to be addressed. As a final step, the article also identifies a series of avenues for further research. Keywords: EU; crisis management; gradations of crisis; multi‐level governance Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:252-262 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Tested by the Polycrisis: Reforming or Transforming the EU? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7894 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7894 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 246-251 Author-Name: Edoardo Bressanelli Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Law, Politics and Development (DIRPOLIS), Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy Author-Name: David Natali Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Law, Politics and Development (DIRPOLIS), Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy Abstract: This thematic issue addresses the question: To what extent have the latest crises—the pandemic crisis and Russia’s war in Ukraine—triggered institutional and policy change in the EU? It contributes to the literature on the impact of crises on integration and the EU political system, presenting new research based on fresh theoretical insights, empirical data, or a combination of both. Theoretically, the contributions collected in the thematic issue explore whether the crises represent a critical juncture for the EU, leading to institutional and/or policy innovations or, rather, set in motion more incremental processes of adaptation. Empirically, all articles—some of which are qualitative, while others are quantitative—are based on original or new data. The first group of contributions deals with institutional change, focusing both on formal (i.e., treaty reform) and informal (i.e., codes of conduct) institutions. A second group moves the focus to policy change, looking at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on several policy areas and the energy crisis. Overall, the key lesson is that the EU can now manage and absorb new shocks quite effectively. At the same time, however, it does not promote ambitious and coherent political models or policy paradigms. Instead, it provides room for experimentation through patchwork-like strategies where old and new instruments and settings mix. Keywords: Covid‐19; crises; energy policy; EU institutions; EU integration; institutional change; policy change; Ukraine Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:246-251 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Legal Traditions as Economic Borders File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7161 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7161 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 235-245 Author-Name: Shintaro Hamanaka Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Developing Economies (IDE‐JETRO), Japan Abstract: This article makes two main claims: A state’s legal tradition is embedded into its domestic institution in each issue area and a state that has a common/civil law-type domestic institution in a certain issue area (not necessarily a state that has common/civil law tradition) prefers common/civil law-type international agreements in the same issue area. The consequence of these two claims is that states’ legal tradition is often one of the primary sources of international cooperation, especially issue-specific cooperation. This in turn means that the difference in legal traditions is often a potential factor that would induce economic disintegration. By conducting theoretical and empirical investigations of three issue areas covered by free trade agreements (i.e., trade in goods, trade in services, and investment), this article demonstrates that different modes of governance are preferred by civil and common law states domestically and internationally, and that the difference in domestic systems partially explains participation and non-participation in international agreements. Keywords: civil law; common law; international cooperation; investment; legal traditions; trade Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:235-245 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Europe’s Global Gateway: A New Instrument of Geopolitics File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7098 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7098 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 223-234 Author-Name: Eugénia C. Heldt Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Germany Abstract: In December 2021, the EU member states agreed on the Global Gateway strategy to mobilize public and private funds of up to €300 billion between 2021 and 2027, to invest in digital, climate and energy, transport, health, education, and research fields. With a geographical focus on Africa, Global Gateway links infrastructure investment projects with condition principles—including democratic values, good governance, and transparency—and catalyzes private investment into EU development financing. Against this backdrop, this study explores why EU member states agreed on this new geopolitical instrument. This piece posits that the confluence of three factors enabled the creation of Global Gateway. First, the EU established this new instrument to counter China’s role as a global infrastructure lender in Africa. Second, Global Gateway was possible through the shift to private investment in multilateral development financing. Equally important for the establishment of Global Gateway was the European Commission’s transformational leadership as an entrepreneurial agent in designing this geopolitical strategy of the EU’s power projection. The conclusion outlines future research avenues and enables readers to consider the wider prospects and caveats of the Global Gateway strategy. Keywords: Africa; China; entrepreneurial agent; European Commission; geopolitics; Global Gateway; global infrastructure development; private investment Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:223-234 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Implementation of EU Trade Agreements Under an Assertive, Open, and Sustainable Trade Policy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7224 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7224 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 212-222 Author-Name: María J. García Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies, University of Bath, UK Abstract: Since the 2010s the EU has expanded its preferential trade agreements, responding to challenges at the World Trade Organization and preferential trade agreements of key geoeconomic competitors. However, preferential trade agreements are only as good as their implementation. The EU 2021 Trade Policy Review for a more assertive trade policy includes a greater focus on preferential trade agreement implementation. An analysis of preferential trade agreement implementation reports identifies challenges in operationalising these. It shows that since 2019 there has been an increase in EU recourse to formal dispute settlement mechanisms under preferential trade agreements demonstrating the shift to greater assertiveness. Interestingly, most of the cases are of limited economic significance to the EU but serve to reinforce the message of enforcement of trade rules. Keywords: agreement enforcement; dispute; European Union; free trade agreements; preferential trade agreements; trade and sustainable development Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:212-222 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Winners and Losers From Trade Agreements: Stock Market Reactions to TPP and TTIP File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7146 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7146 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 200-211 Author-Name: Andreas Dür Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Salzburg, Austria Author-Name: Lisa Lechner Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Innsbruck, Austria Abstract: Which companies gain and which companies lose from trade agreements? In contrast to a view that sees the largest companies as the main beneficiaries of trade agreements, we argue that medium-sized companies gain the most from them. Moreover, we examine whether more capital-intensive and more diversified companies benefit more than other firms. Our empirical test relies on a dataset with daily firm-level stock price data for close to 4,000 US companies over the period 2009–2016. Concretely, we assess how the shares of different types of firms reacted to the news on the (lack of) progress of the negotiations aimed at concluding the TPP and TTIP. We find support for the view that medium-sized and diversified companies win the most from trade agreements. Besides speaking to the literature on the distributional effects of trade agreements, the article contributes to recent research on the role of firms in the international political economy and the stock market consequences of political events. It also presents a novel approach to measuring progress and stagnation in international trade negotiations using computational text analysis. Keywords: distributional effects; stock markets; trade agreements; TPP; TTIP Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:200-211 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Free Trade‐Populism and Nativist‐Protectionism: Trade Policy and the Sweden Democrats File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7066 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7066 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 188-199 Author-Name: Alexander Dannerhäll Author-Workplace-Name: Oslo Business School, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Abstract: The past three decades have seen the entry and increased influence of radical right parties into the European party landscape. These parties harness disaffection with the status quo by appealing to nativist or authoritarian tendencies in the electorate. Their policies often center around the protection of the “common man” from foreign or elite forces (particularly, cultural and economic globalization) and their emergence has been linked to decreasing support for globalization—the so-called “globalization backlash.” Several authors note that although radical right parties advocate economic protectionism to attract voters, who are disaffected by globalization, they say little about how this is manifested in advocacy of concrete policy measures. This speaks to the need for more systematic study of the trade policies of radical right parties. This article studies the Swedish radical right party, the Sweden Democrats (ostensibly free traders), to advance an argument based on the core ideology of radical right parties, nativism, and populism. In doing so, the article contributes to the literature that stresses cultural rather than economic foundations for opposition to globalization. Moreover, this article widens the definition of protectionism from that germane to the literature on radical right parties to include non-tariff barriers to trade (in addition to tariffs and quotas), providing a more up-to-date and multifaceted account of the range of trade policy instruments that radical right parties may advocate. I find that populism inspires advocacy of liberal trade policies, while nativism inspires protectionist trade policies. Protectionism almost exclusively consists of non-tariff barriers. Keywords: nativism; non‐tariff trade barriers; populism; radical right parties; trade policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:188-199 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Varieties of Anti‐Globalism: The Italian Government’s Evolving Stance on the EU’s Investment Screening Mechanism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7037 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7037 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 177-187 Author-Name: Antonio Calcara Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Belgium Author-Name: Arlo Poletti Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy Abstract: In 2017, Italy, France, and Germany jointly supported the setting up of an EU-wide investment screening mechanism to strengthen the EU’s capacity to screen and eventually block foreign investments. In a few months, however, the Italian government changed position dramatically, shifting from leading supporter to staunchest opposer of this pol-icy initiative. Such a change of positioning was decisive in both watering down the initial proposal and moving for-ward with the idea of a looser mechanism coordinating national investment screening activities. This article develops an explanation of the Italian government’s changing negotiating stance. We develop an argument that stresses how two factors combined to produce this puzzling outcome. First, we stress the role of political parties as drivers of governments’ foreign economic policy choices. More specifically, we show that the preferences of the parties form-ing the Italian government after the 2018 general elections (the Lega Nord and the Five Star Movement) were crucial in shaping Italy’s evolving stance on this important issue. Second, we highlight the implications of the tension that exists between two different “varieties” of anti-globalism. While “self-proclaimed” anti-globalist political parties usu-ally combine a traditional critique of globalization and opposition to further political integration in the EU, they may be forced to prioritize one over the other when they prove incompatible. In this context, we show how Italian anti-globalist parties’ choice to prioritize anti-Europeanism over anti-globalism led them to prefer strengthening domes-tic-level institutions to screen FDIs rather than allowing the EU to acquire new powers. Keywords: economic security; EU; investment screening; Italy; political‐economy; political parties Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:177-187 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Commerce and Security Meet in the European Union’s Trade Defence Instruments File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7030 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7030 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 165-176 Author-Name: Patricia Garcia-Duran Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economic History, Institutions, Policy and World Economy, University of Barcelona, Spain Author-Name: L. Johan Eliasson Author-Workplace-Name: Political Science and Economics, East Stroudsburg University, USA Author-Name: Oriol Costa Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain / Barcelona Institute of International Studies, Spain Abstract: Mercantilist policies, protectionism, Chinese and US violations of the spirit—if not always the rules—of the World Trade Organization, along with supply chain vulnerabilities, trade wars, and illegal state subsidies have all contributed to a rise in the weaponisation of commerce (using trade in response to, or to achieve, political decisions or acts) across the globe. The weaponisation and geo-politicisation of trade pose a challenge for the EU, which is poorly suited for a game of power politics. Its common commercial policy developed separately from the intergovernmental foreign and security policy. The level of exclusive EU competence differs across the two policy domains, as do decision-making processes. Drawing on work addressing ideational and instrumental levels of policy, we discuss how the EU is assessing the international environment through the ideational framework of strategic autonomy, and how this has shaped the construction of new trade defence instruments intended to protect against economic and technology-related security risks. Focusing specifically on trade defence instruments addressing security concerns, which are justified in the 2023 European Economic Security Strategy (especially in the pillar focusing on protecting against economic security risks), we show that the distinction between commercial policy and traditional security concerns is eroding. Keywords: economic security strategy; European Union; liberal international order; security; strategic autonomy; trade instruments; trade policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:165-176 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Arming Fortress Europe? Spaces and Instruments of Economic Patriotism in EU Armament Policy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7231 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7231 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 154-164 Author-Name: Catherine Hoeffler Author-Workplace-Name: Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Italy / Centre Émile Durkheim, Sciences Po Bordeaux, France Abstract: How does the EU adapt its policies in response to current global changes? Extant scholarship has shed light on the EU’s geopolitical turn by analysing it as either a shift away from neoliberalism or a reshuffling of EU–US relations. This article makes the case for studying how these two dynamics interact. To do so, I draw on the economic patriotism framework, which focuses on the links between types and spaces of economic interventionism. Economic patriotism instruments can take various forms depending on their type (liberal/protectionist instruments) and space of reference (national/EU/transatlantic/international). From this perspective, the EU has responded to global changes by shifting from liberal to protectionist instruments of economic patriotism. However, the design of these policy instruments reflects compromises between the preferences of policymakers who adopt liberal/protectionist and Europeanist/Atlanticist positions. As policy instruments can create room for compromise because they allow various positions to converge, EU protectionist economic instruments cater to Atlanticist and liberal preferences too. This article illustrates this argument by means of EU armament policy. Using official documents and interviews, I analyse changes in EU economic patriotism by looking at the two major policy instruments: the 2009 Defence Procurement Directive and the 2021 European Defence Fund. Whereas the 2009 Directive reflected liberal economic patriotism anchored in the transatlantic space, the European Defence Fund illustrates tensions between types and spaces of economic interventionism in the EU’s geopolitical turn: Some clauses protect the EU from foreign interference, but its political-economic space of reference remains strongly transatlantic. Keywords: armament; Common Security and Defence Policy; economic nationalism; economic patriotism; European geopolitics; Fortress Europe Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:154-164 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Legitimisation of Foreign Direct Investment Screening Among Business Actors: The Danish Case File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7258 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7258 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 140-153 Author-Name: Anna Vlasiuk Nibe Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark Abstract: There has been a conspicuous shift in the European Union’s perception of economic interdependence and open markets, manifested in a mushrooming number of screening policies aimed at verifying foreign direct investments raising national security concerns. The introduction of these policies can be viewed as a market constraint that might negatively affect business operations, so it is puzzling that some European business actors did not actively resist their adoption, despite having wide lobbying opportunities in Europe. I explore this puzzle using the case of Denmark by drawing on theories of securitisation and preference formation under uncertainty. I argue that business actors established their policy preferences in the context of uncertainty and the gradual increase in security framing by the European and local political elites. Exposed to these increasing security discourses across different levels and networks, businesses adjusted their policy preferences, balancing between different identities. The flexibility inherent in a multilevel and evolving securitisation process led to the legitimisation of investment screening policies among interest groups and mitigated their resistance to the imposition of market constraints on security grounds. Keywords: business interest; foreign direct investment; investment screening; securitisation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:140-153 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Semiconductor and ICT Industrial Policy in the US and EU: Geopolitical Threat Responses File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7031 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7031 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 129-139 Author-Name: Shawn Donnelly Author-Workplace-Name: Public Administration Section, University of Twente, The Netherlands / Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands Abstract: This article analyses chips and critical ICT infrastructure policy in the US and the EU. It examines the increasing importance of Waltian geopolitical security threats on both sides of the Atlantic as a driver of industrial policy, export controls, self-sufficiency, and friendshoring as a replacement for dependence on global supply chains. It shows that threat perceptions are strong and bipartisan in the US, allowing comprehensive, strategic and well-funded industrial policy. Threat perceptions driving chip and 5G industrial policy are also present in the EU’s Economic Security Strategy and related policies. However, differing national preferences dilute a Waltian turn with continued attachment to liberal (global supply chain) approaches to chips and 5G infrastructure and a Waltzian realist stance (capacity-building to build, protect, and promote regardless of security threat) that occupies the middle ground. Keywords: 5G; European Union; industrial policy; national security; semiconductors; strategic autonomy; supply chains; United States Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:129-139 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Economic Security and the Politics of Trade and Investment Policy in Europe File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7858 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7858 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 122-128 Author-Name: Guri Rosén Author-Workplace-Name: Oslo Business School, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Author-Name: Sophie Meunier Author-Workplace-Name: Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, USA Abstract: Facing recent global disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, climate change, and the race for raw materials and technology needed for the green transition, economic interdependence—not least unilateral dependence—has increasingly come to be seen as a security threat. In response, the EU has put resilience and strategic autonomy at the centre of its trade and investment agenda. The EU was long resistant to this geoeconomic turn, that is, the use of economic tools for geopolitical purposes in normal times. Since 2017, however, the EU has placed greater emphasis on identifying and mitigating the security vulnerabilities that accrue from open markets. This geoeconomic turn has culminated in the June 2023 release of the European Commission’s Economic Security Strategy, which aims to maximise the benefits of economic openness while minimising the risks from economic interdependence. The aim of this thematic issue is to analyse the foundations of this new European focus on economic security and, more specifically, on the increased use of geoeconomic instruments. Coming at this objective from a variety of disciplinary traditions, methodologies, and substantive focus, our contributors tackle, among others, the following questions: Why has the EU abandoned its reluctance to use geoeconomics and finally made the switch towards economic security? How does the EU’s approach compare with other major global players? And, what are the long-term implications of the EU’s economic security strategy for European integration, its relationship with partners and allies, and the global economic order? Keywords: anti-globalization backlash; economic security; European Union; geoeconomics; investment; trade Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:122-128 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Political Determinants of Fiscal Governance in the EU: Towards a New Equilibrium File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7248 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7248 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 112-121 Author-Name: Marco Buti Author-Workplace-Name: Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute, Italy Author-Name: Sergio Fabbrini Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, LUISS University, Italy Abstract: The article investigates the political determinants of fiscal governance in the EU. Since the outset of the Economic and Monetary Union, the EU adopted a model of fiscal regulation which attempted to keep government debt and deficit in check to avoid “fiscal dominance.” With the 2020 pandemic, the EU suspended the fiscal rules and adopted a program, Next Generation EU, having some features of a central fiscal capacity. On the bases of comparative federal analysis, the article discusses the political conditions that preside over the formation of a stable central fiscal capacity, here conceptualized as the “triple-T model.” We argue that, in unions of states, the determinants of a central fiscal capacity consist in the appearance of an existential threat, in the reciprocal trust among national governments for answering the threat with central resources, and an adequately long time planning horizon of national policymakers to apprehend the benefits of those common resources for all member states. On these bases, the article outlines the contour of a new EU fiscal set up which encompasses an EU central fiscal capacity and robust budget rules framing the fiscal choices of national authorities. Keywords: central fiscal capacity; Economic and Monetary Union; European Union; fiscal equilibrium; fiscal governance; fiscal policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:112-121 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Coexistence of Fiscal Sovereignties: The Post‐Pandemic European Union in Comparative Perspective File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7244 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7244 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 102-111 Author-Name: Tiziano Zgaga Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Germany Abstract: Thanks to the recovery fund Next Generation EU, the EU considerably increased the size of its fiscal capacity by increasing its borrowing power. Yet, the post-pandemic EU has left the key issue of how to distribute fiscal sovereignty across the EU and the member states unsolved. Departing from influential concepts in the political science literature, this article argues that we still lack a thorough analytical framework to operationalise the coexistence of two fiscal sovereignties—the fiscal sovereignty of the centre (here, the EU) and the fiscal sovereignty of the units (here, the member states). By resorting to comparative federalism, the article first operationalises fiscal sovereignty as the power to collect, administer, and spend resources. A level of government (the centre or the units) is fiscally sovereign if it can decide on its revenues, the administration of its resources, and its expenditures alone or together with the other level of government (what I call “fiscal self- or co-determination”). The coexistence of fiscal sovereignties becomes impossible if one level systematically and unilaterally encroaches upon the other (“fiscal out-determination”), as is still the case with the post-pandemic EU. On the contrary, in a union of states by aggregation like the EU—namely, Switzerland—the centre (Confederation) has its own fiscal powers, while the units (cantons) retain most of their fiscal sovereignty: The coexistence of fiscal sovereignties is thus possible. The article concludes by outlining which “fiscal features” of the Swiss system could not work in the EU and which could instead potentially work. Keywords: comparative fiscal federalism; European Union; fiscal capacity; fiscal regulation; fiscal sovereignty; Switzerland Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:102-111 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Clocks, Caps, Compartments, and Carve‐Outs: Creating Federal Fiscal Capacity Despite Strong Veto Powers File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7250 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7250 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 92-101 Author-Name: Shawn Donnelly Author-Workplace-Name: Section of Public Administration, University of Twente, The Netherlands / Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands Abstract: This article examines four mechanisms for establishing federal spending programmes despite tough opposition based on identity or ideological politics, as well as disputes between haves and have-nots. It contrasts the use of clocks (time limits), caps, compartments (special justification for spending that would otherwise have been rejected), and carve-outs (exemptions to federal spending programmes to buy off objecting veto players) to secure political support for national-level programmes, and asks under what conditions those limits might be breached. We look at the EU, Canada, and the US. These tactics are most successful at “getting to yes” for federal authorities when they can isolate individual objections. As long as those objections persist, the limits will persist as well. Keywords: budget politics; Canada; European Union; fiscal federalism; political economy; redistribution; state‐building; United States Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:92-101 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Fiscal Rules and Federal Capacity in American Fiscal History: Lessons for Europe? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7230 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7230 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 82-91 Author-Name: Christakis Georgiou Author-Workplace-Name: Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva, Switzerland Abstract: Recent comparative fiscal federalism work has noted how the US displays a mix of substantial federal capacity and no federal fiscal rules for sub-federal units as opposed to the EU’s mix of regulation and lack of capacity. The difference is explained by the lack of federal capacity in the EU case, which presumably creates a need for regulation. However, these studies are cross-sectional. This carries the obvious drawback of abstracting the actual political and historical processes that have given rise to the respective mixes of regulation and capacity in the two polities. In this article, I trace the historical process by which the specific mix of no rules and capacity became entrenched in the US in the second half of the 20th century and ask whether that political-economic history has any lessons for the EU today. Keywords: comparative federalism; fiscal capacity; fiscal federalism; fiscal rules; political development Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:82-91 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: No Borrowing Without Taxing? Fiscal Solidarity of Next Generation EU in Light of the American Experience File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7233 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7233 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 73-81 Author-Name: Tomasz P. Woźniakowski Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wrocław, Poland / Department of Political Science, LUISS University, Italy Abstract: This article argues that the EU response to the pandemic, the Next Generation EU (NGEU), dubbed a “Hamiltonian moment” for Europe, can be better understood if compared to the US under the Articles of Confederation. The key aspect of the original Hamiltonian moment was the assumption of states’ debts after the Union was given tax power. None of this happened with the NGEU. The EU was not given any significant new sources of revenue, apart from some environmental levies, and was only allowed to borrow more on the financial markets to finance new fiscal solidarity mechanisms. In the US, this kind of borrowing power gave rise to monetary financing of the debt and enormous inflation. Instead of backing the enlarged borrowing powers with a fiscalization process leading to tax powers, the EU created a hybrid system of temporary, limited quasi-fiscalization in the form of the NGEU, which has legitimacy gaps. Simultaneously, the EU introduced enhanced fiscal regulation with conditionalities in the form of the new European Semester (an annual EU cycle of economic and fiscal coordination) tied to the allocation of the NGEU funds. Additionally, the EU has only promised to work in the future on various forms of revenue needed to pay the new debt. Hence, I will show that the NGEU could be better described as a “Morrisian moment” for Europe, as Robert Morris, the superintendent of finance of the US (1781–1784), was the very first finance minister of a similar kind of a union, with the power to borrow but no power to tax, governed by the unanimity rule in fiscal matters, which led to the failure of his proposals for national revenue. Keywords: central fiscal capacity; comparative federalism; democratic legitimacy; economic governance; fiscal federalism; fiscal soli‐ darity; fiscal union; fiscalization process; tax power Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:73-81 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Debudgetisation of Public Finances in Poland After Covid‐19 and the War in Ukraine File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7242 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7242 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 62-72 Author-Name: Maciej Serowaniec Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Constitutional Law, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland / Historical Archives of the European Union, European University Institute, Italy Abstract: The experience of dealing with the socio-economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine confirms the thesis that decisions on financial assistance must be taken without delay and that the government must have a certain degree of freedom and flexibility to act. However, do emergencies entitle governments to bypass the principles of responsible and transparent fiscal policy-making? Do the challenges countries face in dealing with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine also legitimise governments’ furthering of the debudgetisation of public finances? This article aims to answer these questions. The background of the considerations will be an analysis of Polish legal solutions and systemic practice. First, it is worth noting that anti-crisis measures in Poland have been taken primarily through extra-budgetary financial instruments, which are not included in the monitored scope of public finance. Surprising budgetary solutions appear, such as transferring Treasury securities instead of subsidies or pushing certain expenditures outside the state budget, to circumvent regulations and legally binding restrictions. In the context of parliamentary scrutiny, this means that a significant proportion of public debt is outside parliamentary control, and the scale of circumvention of the constitutional limit on public debt has been increasing for several years, reaching a considerable percentage of the GDP in 2021. This phenomenon is also accompanied by a record increase in public debt, fuelled by borrowing to finance tasks related to countering the Covid-19 pandemic and the socio-economic consequences of the war in Ukraine. It is, therefore, worth taking a closer look at the Polish government’s budgetary solutions, which undoubtedly do not contribute to fostering transparency in budgetary policy. Keywords: budget process; Covid‐19; debudgetisation; Poland; public debt; public deficit; state budget; war in Ukraine Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:62-72 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Funding the War in Ukraine: The European Peace Facility, the Macro‐Financial Assistance Instrument, and the Slow Rise of an EU Fiscal Capacity File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7174 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7174 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 52-61 Author-Name: Federico Fabbrini Author-Workplace-Name: School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland / School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, USA Abstract: The war in Ukraine represented a major geopolitical shock for the EU. In the face of an illegal Russian aggression, EU institutions and member states rallied to support Ukraine. Nevertheless, the war in Ukraine also exposed the limited fiscal capacity of the EU. As a result, EU institutions and member states had to come up with creative ways to financially back Ukraine’s military and civilian efforts. This article examines the two key tools deployed by the EU so far to fund Ukraine in its war against Russia, namely the European Peace Facility and the Macro-Financial Assistance Instrument. The article details the legal features of these tools, evaluates their intergovernmental vs. supranational nature, and reflects on their significance for the consolidation of an EU fiscal capacity. As the article argues, the war in Ukraine quickly prompted the EU to replicate some of the novelties it used to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, namely the use of common borrowing and spending. Nevertheless, structural fiscal and governance weaknesses still limit the ability of the EU to mobilize resources and leverage power on the international stage. Keywords: debt; EU budget; European Peace Facility; Macro‐Financial Assistance Instrument; war in Ukraine Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:52-61 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Collective Policy Learning in EU Financial Assistance: Insights from the Euro Crisis and Covid‐19 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7175 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7175 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 40-51 Author-Name: Andrea Capati Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, LUISS University, Italy Abstract: This article examines policy change in the EU’s financial assistance regime through a collective learning perspective. By defining a financial assistance regime as the set of rules governing the disbursement and withdrawal of funding to the member states in the context of crisis management, the article seeks to address the following research question: How can we explain the exact form of change in the EU’s financial assistance regime between the euro crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic? The article finds that financial assistance in the EU moved from “intergovernmental coordination” with the European Stability Mechanism to a form of “limited supranational delegation” with the Recovery and Resilience Facility and argues that such a change is due to a collective policy-learning process. This finding suggests that the EU tends to learn from past crisis experiences, freeing itself from established institutional constraints, only when the next crisis becomes a concrete cause for concern. However, when the next crisis strikes, the EU is indeed able to radically alter its practices based on previous policy failures. Keywords: collective learning; Covid‐19; European Union; European Stability Mechanism; financial assistance; policy change; Recovery and Resilience Facility Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:40-51 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Revisiting Early Fiscal Centralisation in the European Coal and Steel Community in Light of the EU’s Transfer Budget File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7252 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7252 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 28-39 Author-Name: Johanna Lorraine Breuer Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, Italy Abstract: The last few years have resulted in substantial changes for the EU’s fiscal powers, primarily through the introduction of the Next Generation EU funds. This article argues that the assessment of these developments as federalisation processes is based upon a central misunderstanding of the EU budget as a public goods budget in a federal state. The EU is a compound polity comprising of mature states, and its budget may be termed a “transfer budget,” which allows member states to predict budgetary costs and benefits. To understand the transfer-oriented nature of the budget, this article adopts a historical institutionalist lens. Revisiting the fiscal centralisation in the European Coal and Steel Community allows us to understand how the six delegations agreed to combine economic and social aims in this budget, which was intended to serve the European Coal and Steel Community with similar elements to a public goods budget. Revenue consisted of debts and a levy on coal and steel produce, whereas expenditure ranged from investments to payments to individual workers. The Treaty of Rome, with its anti-supranational basis, triggered a critical juncture in Europe’s budgetary history: Since 1957, a transfer budget evolved. Revisiting the European Coal and Steel Community budget system allows us to understand the fiscal federal appearance of the Next Generation EU funds: While the EU makes new attempts to use its budget for the provision of common goods, its functions are limited by the institutional structure of the transfer budget. Keywords: budgetary history; EU budget; European Coal and Steel Community; fiscal integration; Next Generation EU Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:28-39 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Building up the EU Revenue Side: But What Is a Tax in EU Law? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7176 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7176 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 17-27 Author-Name: Ricardo García Antón Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Tax Economics, Tilburg University, The Netherlands Abstract: While the US Constitution expressly grants the federation the power to tax, Article 311 TFEU is silent on whether such power exists at the EU level. This contribution argues that the Union has the power to tax, provided that the chosen resources in the basket match the objectives and policies of the Union. Since the achievement of the internal market is a shared competence (Article 4 TFEU), the Union can decide the level of resources tailored to this goal. Although the Union has a broad power to tax under Article 311 TFEU to pursue its objectives and policies, the member states are still the “masters,” able to decide the level of resources under the unanimity rule. To resolve this paradox, this contribution embraces a democratic legitimacy of EU taxes that grant the European Parliament the power to decide the revenue side of the EU budget. EU democratic taxes approved by the European Parliament could reaffirm the redistributive function of taxes, thereby allowing the redistribution of wealth from rich to poor. Keywords: democratic legitimacy; EU budget; EU fiscal capacity; EU internal market; EU taxation; Next Generation EU Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:17-27 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Revenue Capacity of the EU: Taxes, Tax Sharing, and Resource Pooling File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7240 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7240 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 6-16 Author-Name: Nico Groenendijk Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Inland Norway University, Norway Abstract: This article analyses the revenue capacity at the “centre” of the EU. It first outlines major elements (“segments”) of EU “federal” fiscal capacity, both on the revenue and expenditure side, as well as on- and off-budget. It provides a new typology of taxes in a multi-level setting, based on tax ownership and decision-making on tax bases and/or rates. It then enters the so-called EU budgetary galaxy and (a) analyses how the centre utilises different types of revenue capacity and (b) discusses if the so-called “own resources” have tax features. The article finds that these own resources, to a large extent, de facto constitute taxing power, that the EU significantly uses off-budget borrowing capacity (through the European Investment Bank and the European Commission) and that the EU has a variety of schemes that offer revenue capacity to the centre, through the pooling of resources (transfers, guarantees) by its member states and by third countries. The way in which a large portion of the Next Generation EU resources have been channelled into the EU budget (by means of externally assigned revenue) completes the image of a centre with fiscal capacity, rather than an entity that spends but has no true fiscal powers. Keywords: EU budget; EU finances; fiscal autonomy; fiscal capacity; fiscal integration; Next Generation EU; own resources; revenue capacity; tax sharing Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:6-16 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Comparative Fiscal Federalism and the Post‐Covid EU: Between Debt Rules and Borrowing Power File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7653 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7653 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 4 Pages: 1-5 Author-Name: Tomasz P. Woźniakowski Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, LUISS University, Italy / Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wrocław, Poland Author-Name: Tiziano Zgaga Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz, Germany Author-Name: Sergio Fabbrini Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, LUISS University, Italy Abstract: This thematic issue examines two main research questions: What are the features, the determinants, and the implications of fiscal integration in a system of multilevel governance like the EU? And, what can the post-pandemic EU learn from established federations when it comes to fiscal integration? We attempt to conceptualize the patterns of EU fiscal integration. In so doing, we identify eight instruments of fiscal integration in a federal or multilevel polity, equally divided between fiscal capacity and fiscal regulation, depending on the side of the budget and the mode of integration (autonomous or dependent). For instance, as part of the fiscal capacity instrument of integration, we propose to distinguish between revenue and expenditure capacity. Revenue capacity is then further divided into tax capacity, based on EU/federal taxes, and budgetary capacity, based on non-independent sources, for instance, contributions from the member states. Expenditure capacity is divided into autonomous spending capacity, meaning direct spending by the EU, and a dependent transfer capacity, where the EU merely distributes resources (both grants and loans) to the member states. Keywords: economic governance; EU budget; EU taxes; fiscal capacity; fiscal integration; fiscal solidarity; fiscal union; fiscalization process; Next Generation EU; own resources Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:1-5 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Show Me the Money: Side‐Payments and the Implementation of International Agreements in Federal Systems File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6811 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6811 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 312-326 Author-Name: Johannes Müller Gómez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, Canada / Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany Abstract: Federal systems face specific challenges in fulfilling their international commitments. In cases of shared jurisdiction, the federal government needs the sub-federal level to contribute to the implementation process. Both Canada and the EU have used side-payments to bring and keep on board reluctant and opposing provinces and member states in the implementation of international agreements. However, both cases have experienced the limits of this strategy. This article aims to make a theoretical contribution by identifying the causal conditions and processes that help explain the success and failure of using side-payments to encourage sub-federal support for the implementation of an international agreement. Based on the study of the implementation of the Paris Agreement in Canada and the EU, I develop a two-fold argument. First, side-payments can be an effective tool to persuade sub-federal governments if they are generally interested in contributing to implementation. They do not work for governments of powerful entities that are unwilling to implement. Second, sub-federal governments react to other actors’ conduct. Side-payments can keep reluctant governments of weak entities on board only as long as no alliance of powerful sub-federal entities is formed that resists the implementation of an international agreement. Keywords: Canada; European Union; federalism; implementation; international agreements; Paris Agreement; side‐payments Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:312-326 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Multilevel Trade Policy in the Joint‐Decision Trap? The Case of CETA File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6800 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6800 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 300-311 Author-Name: Jörg Broschek Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada Abstract: Wallonia’s refusal to ratify CETA in October 2016 suggests that multilevel trade politics may increasingly be subject to the pitfalls of joint decision-making, or even a joint-decision trap. This article, however, presents a more nuanced perspective that builds on a comparative analysis of intergovernmental configurations that underpinned constituent units’ participation in CETA in the four formal federations Canada, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. It shows, firstly, that joint decision-making is only one mode of intergovernmental trade policy coordination that needs to be distinguished from others. Second, joint decision-making rarely leads to a joint decision trap as actors seek to bypass the institutional constraints entailed in this mode of intergovernmental coordination. The study has implications beyond the field of trade policy as it contributes to the comparative analysis of intergovernmental relations in Canada and Europe. Keywords: Canada; CETA; EU; federalism; intergovernmental relations; joint decision‐making; trade policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:300-311 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Health Care in Federal Systems File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6706 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6706 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 289-299 Author-Name: Katherine Fierlbeck Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Dalhousie University, Canada Abstract:How do multilevel health care systems evolve? Do they develop in a similar manner, or are their respective paths of evolution more sui generis? The aim of this article is to compare the way in which Canada and the European Union have attempted to coordinate health policy between their component multilevel jurisdictions over time. This article argues that the EU—despite its limited authority over health care—has been better able than Canada to develop a greater capacity for addressing health policy at a supranational level, notwithstanding Canada’s greater federal involvement in financing health care. While the experience of the EU supports the theoretical premises of neofunctionalism (that a certain level of integration will induce even greater integration in other areas, especially in response to crisis), the experience of Canadian health care federalism does not fit that theoretical paradigm. This suggests a limited applicability for neofunctionalist theory across multilevel systems more widely.
Keywords: Canada; Covid‐19; European Union; federalism; health care; health policy; neofunctionalism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:289-299 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “Can You Complete Your Delivery?” Comparing Canadian and European Union Legal Statuses of Platform Workers File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6833 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6833 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 276-288 Author-Name: Raoul Gebert Author-Workplace-Name: School of Management, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada Abstract: In December 2021, the European Commission proposed a directive creating five criteria for the presumed classification of platform economy workers as salaried employees. The issue is timely, of course, as the digital organisation of work continues to grow rapidly. Our article contrasts the merits and limitations of this initiative to the Canadian experience concerning so-called independent contractors in the platform economy. In fact, Canadian labour law has long recognised a third status of workers—dependent contractors. It permits collective bargaining, while platform workers remain autonomous, notably for tax purposes. Immediately, the striking similarities between the European Union’s five criteria and judicial tests applied by Canadian labour tribunals seem to indicate that both entities are moving in the same direction. However, the federal structure of labour law in Canada and the single market’s social dimension also pose important challenges regarding the uniform implementation of new protections. Based on recent fieldwork in Toronto, and as the European Union directive moves into the approval and implementation stages, our article addresses the research question of how basic labour rights in the platform economy progress similarly (or differently), and which actors are driving the change on each side of the Atlantic. We argue that this policy field provides labour market actors with opportunities for “institutional experimentation” navigating the openings and limitations of federalism. Keywords: Canada; digital labour platforms; European Union; labour law; labour policy; trade unions Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:276-288 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Temporary Protection in Times of Crisis: The European Union, Canada, and the Invasion of Ukraine File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6817 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6817 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 264-275 Author-Name: Catherine Xhardez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, Canada Author-Name: Dagmar Soennecken Author-Workplace-Name: School of Public Policy and Administration, York University, Canada Abstract:The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a major displacement crisis. In an unprecedented move, the European Union activated the 2001 Temporary Protection Directive to give those fleeing the conflict temporary protection, marking the first use of the directive in 20 years. Meanwhile, Canada announced its readiness to accept an unlimited number of Ukrainians and launched the Canada–Ukraine Authorization of Emergency Travel to fast-track their arrival. This article compares the policy responses of the EU and Canada to the crisis in Ukraine, focusing on the two temporary protection schemes and differentiating between their overarching goals, policy instruments, and settings. While the policies may seem similar at first, we show that a closer examination reveals underlying disparities, contradictions, and complexities, particularly when analyzing the precise policy instruments and settings. Considering that contemporary policy trajectories are informed by the past, we suggest that while the two programs build on the respective regions’ historical and political contexts, crises also create opportunities for change, raising questions about the future direction of immigration policy in both regions.
Keywords: Canada; European Union; international protection; policy responses; temporary protection; Ukraine Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:264-275 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Federal Servants of Inclusion? The Governance of Student Mobility in Canada and the EU File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6815 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6815 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 251-263 Author-Name: Alina Felder Author-Workplace-Name: School of Economics and Political Science, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland Author-Name: Merli Tamtik Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Educational Administration, Foundations and Psychology, University of Manitoba, Canada Abstract: Student mobility constitutes a core pillar of higher education internationalisation. Reflecting wider global trends, Canada and the EU have increasingly prioritised equity and inclusion in their student mobility programmes. Canada’s Global Skills Opportunity programme, launched in 2021, provides federal funding specifically to low-income students, students with disabilities, and Indigenous students. The EU’s Erasmus Programme has a long-standing tradition of community-building through inclusive student mobility. This article traces the principle of inclusion as a mobility rationale and analyses the role of the federal government in Canada and the European Commission in the EU supporting it. Using a policy framing lens, this study compares problem definitions, policy rationales, and solutions for federal/supranational involvement in student mobility. Findings show that inclusiveness has been an underlying silent value, yet it has mostly supported larger political and economic goals in both contexts. Keywords: Canada; Erasmus; European Union; Global Skills Opportunity; higher education; regionalisation; student mobility Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:251-263 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Constitutional Abeyances: Reflecting on EU Treaty Development in Light of the Canadian Experience File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6835 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6835 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 241-250 Author-Name: Achim Hurrelmann Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Carleton University, Canada Abstract: The concept of constitutional abeyances, originally proposed by Foley (1989), describes aspects of a political system that are left deliberately ambiguous. Foley suggests that the maintenance and management of such areas of “settled unsettlement” are indispensable to prevent and resolve conflict about a polity’s constitutional order. The concept of constitutional abeyances has been used productively to analyze constitutional development in Canada, especially the country’s constitutional crises in the 1980s and 1990s. However, with very few exceptions, it has not been applied to analyze the EU and its treaty development. This article leverages the comparison to Canada to argue that a focus on constitutional abeyances, and their successful or unsuccessful institutional reproduction, provides fresh perspectives for analyzing European integration, including insights into the emergence of the EU’s current crises and principles that might guide a political response. Keywords: Canada; constitutional abeyances; EU; historical institutionalism; institutional development Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:241-250 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Multiheaded Federations: The EU and Canada Compared File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6830 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6830 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 231-240 Author-Name: John Erik Fossum Author-Workplace-Name: ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway Abstract: The purpose of this article is to assess the merits of comparing the EU and Canada from a federal perspective. The point of departure is that both are federal-type entities that represent deviations from the standard or mainstream American model of federalism. That has given rise to alternative conceptions, multilevel governance for the EU, and a multinational federation for Canada. The article discusses the limitations of each such notion and instead argues for the merits of seeing both as different versions of multiheaded federation which is a useful analytical device for analyzing contestation over federalism within federal-type entities. This notion directs our attention to those with power and in the position to shape the political system’s federal-constitutional nature and design, which normally happens in the realm of constitutional politics. It is the fundamental struggle over sovereignty within a federal-type structure that gives rise to the notion of a multiheaded federation—there are multiple heads because there is no willingness to accept a hierarchical arrangement. The notion of a multiheaded federation is particularly suitable for capturing (de)federalisation processes and dynamics. Keywords: Canada; European Union; federalism; multiheaded federation; multilevel governance; multinational federation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:231-240 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Merits and Challenges of Comparing the EU and Canada File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7569 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.7569 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 226-230 Author-Name: Alexander Hoppe Author-Workplace-Name: Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, The Netherlands / Institute of Political Science, University of Duisburg‐Essen, Germany Author-Name: Lori Thorlakson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Alberta, Canada Author-Name: Johannes Müller Gómez Author-Workplace-Name: Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany / Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, Canada Abstract: In the last decades, EU studies have increasingly broadened in terms of their theoretical and methodological approaches. By now, comparative concepts and theories are an integral part of studying the EU, which aids the study of its polity, politics, and policies. Despite the indisputable peculiarity of the EU as a political system, many scholars have stressed the value of using comparative approaches to study it. This thematic issue aims to investigate a specific case—the political system of Canada—as to its merit for comparison with the EU. While both systems have been described as sui generis in the past, forming a class of political system by themselves, recently the similarities between both have been stressed. This thematic issue gathers articles that compare different aspects of these two systems—focusing on polity, politics, and policy—to reap the benefits of the comparative approach and gain new insights into the functioning of both systems. The contributions to the thematic issue show the benefits that both Canadian political science and EU studies can gain from engaging in comparative exercises. Keywords: Canada; comparative politics; comparative turn; EU; EU studies Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:226-230 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Public Legitimation by “Going Personal”? The Ambiguous Role of International Organization Officials on Social Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6767 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6767 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 213-225 Author-Name: Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt Author-Workplace-Name: Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21), University of Duisburg‐Essen, Germany Abstract: International organizations increasingly use social media to target citizens with an abundance of content, which tends to stylize officials across ranks as the “personal face” of institutional processes. Such practices suggest a new degree of access to the every day of multilateralism that has traditionally taken place on camera and with the aid of diplomatic discretion. What is more, in these practices the intuitive truth of images on social media often blends with a more credible expression of emotional states—such as enthusiasm, sympathy, anger, or shame—which facilitates the legitimation of international organizations as credible agents of shared values and norms. At the same time, however, such personalization arguably suggests a problematic dependency on the credible conduct of international organization officials as it might undermine institutional claims to depersonalized “rational-legal” authority in international politics and local arenas of implementation alike. Also, it aggravates existing problems of decoupling action in global governance from its political symbolism, because international organizations use social media by and large to communicate “top-down,” despite claiming a more personal mode of communication among peers. To illustrate this argument, the article takes on content shared by leading officials of the UN, the IMF, the WHO, and the WTO on Twitter. Keywords: digital diplomacy; echo chambers; emotional labor; global publics; international organizations; self‐legitimation; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:213-225 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: European Think Tanks as a Channel of EU Public Diplomacy Towards Transnational Publics File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6837 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6837 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 200-212 Author-Name: Tatyana Bajenova Author-Workplace-Name: Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Italy Abstract:This article examines the role of European think tanks in public diplomacy efforts of the EU. It builds on Bourdieu’s field theory and concept of capital using data from EU official documents, website materials, and semi-structured interviews with representatives of think tanks from Brussels, France, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom, as well as their networks and the EU institutions. The article argues that EU institutions provide financial support for think tanks to obtain political capital in the form of internal and external legitimacy. The European Commission mobilises think tank academic capital by funding their educational activities, which helps to deal with the “democratic deficit” and plays the role of intellectual “soft power” by training current and future policymakers in Europe and beyond as potential allies in competition with other regions. Due to the particularity of the EU public sphere, characterised by the lack of outreach mass media, the European Commission tries to improve its capacity to shape public opinion at the European and global levels by using think tank publicity capital in its communication activities via new media platforms, distinguished by direct access to wider audiences. The European Commission benefits from think tank social capital, encouraging them to create transnational networks regarded as contributing to the promotion of integration within the EU, building relations with candidate countries, and strengthening its position in multilateral negotiations. Although the citizen’s dimension is not always at the core of practices of European think tanks, this article demonstrates their effectiveness as a channel of public diplomacy towards transnational publics.
Keywords: Bourdieu; capital; European Commission; European Union; field theory; public diplomacy; think tanks Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:200-212 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Janus Face of Valuation: Global Performance Indicators as Powerful and Criticized Public Measures File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6780 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6780 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 189-199 Author-Name: Leopold Ringel Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany Abstract: The article conceptualizes global performance indicators as public measures that are powerful but also receive a wide range of criticism. Global performance indicators derive their power from combining three analytically distinct elements: (a) commensuration (comparing performances on a common metric), (b) visual simplification (presenting performances in an appealing format), and (c) serialization (framing performance as a continuous developing property). However, the very same elements are often subject to criticism. The producers of global performance indicators, therefore, defend methodologies and the validity of commensurated numbers, meet charges of visual oversimplification by professing sobriety and nuance, and balance temporal continuity and discontinuity. By conceptualizing global performance indicators as powerful and criticized public measures, the article draws attention to the Janus face of valuation, which the producers must tackle continuously. Investing considerable time, energy, and resources, these organizations are a key feature of today’s vast indicator culture. Keywords: critique; indicators; organizations; power; quantification; visualization Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:189-199 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Satellites and the Changing Politics of Transparency in World Politics File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6784 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6784 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 178-188 Author-Name: Thomas Müller Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany Abstract: This article explores the degree to which commercial satellite imagery has empowered non-state actors in the politics of transparency in world politics. This question has received renewed attention in the wake of the disclosure of China’s new missile silos in 2021 as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine since 2022. The article contributes to research on this question by teasing out the competition over authority undergirding the politics of transparency. It does so in two steps: it conceptualizes the politics of transparency as involving a combination of state and non-state actors engaging in transparency efforts against another state or other states and it distinguishes four aspects of the empowerment of non-state actors in such constellations of actors: (a) the emergence of new or better disclosure devices that (b) bolster the expertise of some non-state actors, (c) giving them more influence over public debates, and (d) prompting changes in the policies of relevant actors. The article uses this framework to explore the factors that affected the degree of empowerment of non-state actors in the two cases of China’s new missile silos as well as Russia’s war against Ukraine. It highlights three factors: the interplay between state and non-state transparency makers, the polarization of public spheres, and the ability of states targeted by the transparency efforts to fragment public spheres. Keywords: authority; China; commercial satellites; Russia; transparency Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:178-188 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: European Union’s Regulating of Social Media: A Discourse Analysis of the Digital Services Act File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6735 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6735 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 168-177 Author-Name: Gabi Schlag Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Tübingen, Germany Abstract: Traditional conceptions of democratic publics are changing due to the rise of social media as a global communication tool. While social media brings people together globally and creates new spaces for creativity and resistance, it is also a space of harassment, discrimination, and violence. As recent debates about hate speech and the distribution of “fake news” have shown, the political responsibilities and consequences of regulating online content remain unclear. More recently, the EU is increasingly paying attention to platform providers. How is the EU legitimizing its new approach to social media platform regulation and how will this legislation shape transnational publics? This article contributes to ongoing debates on platform regulation by governments and other political authorities (especially the EU as a transnational legislator) and discussions about the shape of online publics. By applying a discourse analytical perspective, key legitimation narratives can be explored. I argue that the EU claims political authority over corporate interests by introducing new legislation to regulate social media platforms with the Digital Services Act. On the one hand, the EU imagines an idealized democratic online public without harmful and illegal content. On the other hand, the new legislation serves the EU’s agenda on digital sovereignty, taking back control from big and US-based enterprises. There is a strong consensus about four legitimation narratives: (a) “What is illegal offline has to be illegal online”; (b) the EU is “taking back control”; (c) the EU is “protecting small businesses, consumers, and our citizens against big tech”; (d) the EU is developing “a golden standard and rulebook beyond the EU.” Held together by the idea of democratic procedures, authority, and sovereignty, these narratives are demanding more action from social media providers to act on harmful and illegal content. Keywords: content moderation; Digital Services Act; EU regulation; freedom of expression; social media platforms Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:168-177 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Assembling Publics: Microsoft, Cybersecurity, and Public‐Private Relations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6771 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6771 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 157-167 Author-Name: Tobias Liebetrau Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Author-Name: Linda Monsees Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Governance of Emerging Technologies, Institute of International Relations Prague, Czech Republic Abstract: In this article, we advance the literature on publics in international politics by exploring the nexus between publicness and big tech companies. This nexus finds a significant expression in the increasing impact of big tech companies to mediate disputes over societal problems, deliver social goods and rearticulate public-private relationships. We develop an analytical framework by combining recent scholarship on assemblage theory and publics, allowing us to understand publicness as enacted in practices which revolve around issues and rearticulate relations of authority and legitimacy. To demonstrate the value of the framework, we show how Microsoft is involved in assembling publicness around cybersecurity. Microsoft does so by problematising and countering state-led cybersecurity activities, questioning the state as a protector of its citizens and proposing governance measures to establish the tech sector as authoritative, and legitimate “first responders.” With this rearticulating of public-private relations, we see the emergence of a political subject for whom security is not solely the right of a citizen secured by the state but also a customer service provided as per a service agreement. The study hence offers important insights into the connection between publicness and cybersecurity, state and big tech relations, and the formation of authority and legitimacy in international politics. Keywords: assemblage; big tech; citizen‐user; cybersecurity; global governance; international politics; Microsoft; public Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:157-167 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Shaping Global Public Spheres Through International Law: An Investigation Into International Climate Change Law File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6718 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6718 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 145-156 Author-Name: Moritz Vinken Author-Workplace-Name: Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Germany Abstract:This article makes three arguments to contribute to this thematic issue’s intention of examining the role of public spheres in global politics. To begin with, it attempts to develop the concept of “strong” public spheres to include plenary organs of international institutions. It believes in the potential of this concept as a heuristic fiction. The study then examines the role of international law in shaping global public spheres and their role in global politics. International law’s characteristics have contributed to the current incomplete manifestations of global publics. Not only has international law constructed the institutional frameworks of the “strong” public sphere within international institutions, but it has also integrated civil society actors into the deliberative processes of will formation of these institutions. Finally, this research turns to international climate change law as a case study. The institutional structures created by international climate change law have not only created one “strong” public sphere in the form of the conference of the parties but rely on a second “strong” global public, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which aims to institutionalise the global climate science community without abandoning an intergovernmental structure. What is more, the paradigm shift accompanying the Paris Agreement has made global climate change governance increasingly reliant on an active transnational global public sphere.
Keywords: global public spheres; international climate change law; public international law; public sphere theory Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:145-156 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Christian Churches and the Ukraine War: Introducing Religious Publics in Global Politics File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6762 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6762 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 134-144 Author-Name: Katharina McLarren Author-Workplace-Name: MAGGI Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Germany Abstract: Publics in global politics are highly dynamic, considering the multitude of actors involved and the issues addressed. When examining Christian churches and the Ukraine War, it emerges that religions not only react to global politics but also contribute to identifying issues and measures of how to tackle them. The interplay of religious publics, therefore, appears particularly dynamic, warranting a distinct conceptualization. This article thus aims to introduce the concept of religious public(s) in global politics by building upon literature on how publics emerge and which manifestations they can assume. First, four manifestations of publics are examined by conducting a case study on Christianity and the Ukraine War. Employing the case study as a plausibility probe, the findings are re-examined in a second step to develop a typology of religious publics. The article concludes by identifying other areas in which studying religious publics and global politics would prove rewarding. Keywords: Christian churches; global politics; publics; religion; religious publics; Russian Orthodox Church; Ukraine War Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:134-144 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From “Bangtan Boys” to “International Relations Professor”: Mapping Self‐Identifications in the UN’s Twitter Public File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6769 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6769 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 120-133 Author-Name: Luis Aue Author-Workplace-Name: Department of History, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany Author-Name: Florian Börgel Author-Workplace-Name: Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Germany Abstract: Digitalization and social media established world-encompassing publics that engage with international organizations. While scholarship has analyzed how international organizations communicate with such digital publics, this article determines who participates in these publics. We created a novel dataset to map the UN’s digital public on Twitter and analyzed the bios of 243,168 accounts that have interacted with the UN. Members of this public provide self-identifications (such as researcher, consultant, or scientist) that indicate a professional interest in the UN. We analyzed clusters of users that self-identify with similar words. We find high heterogeneity in the UN’s digital public: Clusters of professional, academic, and organizational users suggest that the technocratic history of international organizations reflects in the members of its digital public. At the same time, the digital public of the UN extends to very different groups (human rights activists and K-Pop fans feature in the UN’s public on Twitter). We demonstrate for future research how multiple correspondence analysis can reveal clusters in unstructured biographical data. The article contributes the first analysis of self-identifications in digital publics of global politics. Keywords: big data; international organizations; publics; Twitter; UN Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:120-133 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Public Interests and the Legitimation of Global Governance Actors File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6778 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6778 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 109-119 Author-Name: Janne Mende Author-Workplace-Name: MAGGI Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Germany Abstract: Notions of public interests or common goods present a major reference point for the legitimation of global governance and global governors, yet they are rarely subject to closer analysis. After highlighting how a connection to public interests plays a shared pivotal role in legitimating public and private global governance actors alike, this article suggests an expanded understanding of public interests as consisting of a substantive element, an individual interest-based element, and a procedural element. This allows us to study how public interests are framed, affected, disputed, and shaped in global governance, and how global governors are (de)legitimized with certain notions of public interests. It sheds light on how individual interests form public interests (without reducing the former to the latter or vice versa), how apparently neutral, technocratic, or expert-driven ideas of public interests are a matter of (global) politics, and how all the elements of public interests are imbued with power inequalities. The expanded concept of public interests is based on an integration of the governance literature on input, throughput, and output legitimacy with moralist, empiricist, and procedural models from political philosophy. Ultimately, in explicating the often implicit yet formative notion of public interests in global governance, this article argues that the legitimation of global governors does not only depend on whether or not they cater to public interests. Rather, the question is how they frame and affect the substantive, individual interest-based, and procedural elements of public interests, thereby constructing publics in global politics. Keywords: global governance; international organizations; legitimacy; private authority; public authority; public interest Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:109-119 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Subaltern Counterpublics in Global Politics File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6792 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6792 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 98-108 Author-Name: Benjamin Herborth Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: Publics have traditionally been conceived as sites of social integration. While discord, controversy, and contestation may be acknowledged, theorising publics and especially public spheres are characteristically geared toward the production of consensus and/or the conditions of the possibility of unified decision-making. On this view, publics beyond the nation-state are reduced to conceptual extensions of the nation-state—The move to a higher level of aggregation, imagined as global or international, seems to make no conceptual difference. Against this, I propose to conceptualize publics as sites of the constitution of social struggles. To this end, I introduce Nancy Fraser’s concept of “subaltern counterpublics,” previously applied exclusively to national contexts, to the study of global politics. With a view to future empirical application, I discuss three promising sites for the further study of subaltern counterpublics in global politics: colonial public spheres, transnational social activism, and the circulation of extreme right-wing conspiracy tropes. Taken together, I conclude, these three sites of inquiry provide an important corrective to a statist concept of the public in which the place, purpose, and direction of publics are always already taken for granted. Keywords: counterpublics; global governance; global publics; legitimacy; political authority; public sphere Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:98-108 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Publics in Global Politics: A Framing Paper File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7417 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.7417 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 91-97 Author-Name: Janne Mende Author-Workplace-Name: MAGGI Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Germany Author-Name: Thomas Müller Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany Abstract: In IR and beyond, there is considerable debate about the ways global governance, the transnationalisation of publics, and changes in communication technologies have affected the interplay between publics and global politics. This debate is characterised by disagreements about how to conceptualise publics in the global realm—and whether or not they exist in the first place. We seek to contribute to this debate by disentangling the various meanings associated with publics in order to get a better grasp of how publics shape and are shaped by global politics. We do so in two steps. First, we distinguish four different manifestations of publics: audiences, spheres, institutions, and public interests. Second, we identify four key dynamics that affect the evolution and interplay of these manifestations in global politics: the distinction between public and private, changes in communications technologies, the politics of transparency, and the need to legitimise global governance. These interrelated dynamics reshape the publicness of global politics while sustaining the plurality of the publics that partake in it. Keywords: common goods; communication technologies; global governance; global politics; institutions; public‐private divide; publics; transparency Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:91-97 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Policy Entrepreneurs of European Disintegration? The Case of Austrian Asylum Governance After 2015 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6790 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6790 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 79-90 Author-Name: Ivan Josipovic Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Sieglinde Rosenberger Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Helena Segarra Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: The re-establishment of border controls in the Schengen Area since 2015 and repeated contestation of the Common European Asylum System have made the policy sector of migration and asylum a topic of growing importance for European (dis)integration research. This article investigates differentiated disintegration and the factors that facilitate member states’ counter-projects to core-EU integration trajectories. Drawing on the concept of policy entrepreneurship and based on an analysis of policy documents, we use the case of Austria to examine how the government coalition, the Austrian People’s Party, and their chairman, Sebastian Kurz, have shaped European governance of asylum and borders in the aftermath of the 2015–2016 crisis. We first show how the Austrian government performed a shift towards bilateralism and multilateralism outside the EU framework by using transnational party alliances. Second, we outline a policy discourse that justified Schengen-internal bordering based on asylum politics, which eventually served to delegitimize Schengen’s enlargement in 2022. The article contributes conceptually to understanding differentiated disintegration in the sector of migration and asylum, and points to potential drivers of this development. Keywords: Austria; border control; Common European Asylum System; European disintegration; policy entrepreneurship Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:79-90 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Differentiated Implementation of Controls: The Internal Border Regimes of Schengen File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6785 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6785 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 68-78 Author-Name: Johanna Pettersson Fürst Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden Abstract: The use of temporary internal border controls in the Schengen Area reached a new record during the outbreak and spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Several member states chose to introduce internal border controls that had not done so up until that point, while others have had continuous border controls in place since the refugee crisis in 2015. Other member states have never or only rarely used this temporary opt-out from the principle of free movement of persons inside Schengen. This development has raised the question of whether we are moving towards the disintegration of the Schengen Area as member states make very different choices regarding controls towards their EU neighbours. Comparing the use of internal border controls by all member states, the article suggests the concept of differentiated implementation to explain the variations in internal border regimes among Schengen member states. Focusing on two dimensions of control, the control of movement originating internally or externally to the EU, a typology is developed that conceptualises differentiated implementation as four types of internal border regimes. The analysis illustrates these four types by applying them to the use of controls up until 2022, identifying the grouping of member states. The proposed typology of internal border regimes presented represents an ambition to conceptualise the differences in internal border control use that have previously often been understood as a general problem of the Schengen regime. Keywords: border control; Covid‐19; European integration; migration; Schengen Area; temporary borders Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:68-78 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Between a Rock and a Hard Place: European Disintegration, Brexit, and Gibraltar File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6777 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6777 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 59-67 Author-Name: Sean Mark O’Dubhghaill Author-Workplace-Name: Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Author-Name: Sven Van Kerckhoven Author-Workplace-Name: Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Abstract: This article aims to explore the contours of Gibraltar, a uniquely situated region in Europe and a non-self-governing British overseas territory. It explores the basis for Gibraltar’s continued and maintained presence within the EU after Brexit. Gibraltar’s full accession into the Schengen area, which was expected to be implemented by the end of 2022, is a significant departure from the disintegration that was observable elsewhere in Brexit negotiations but also does not align with the United Kingdom’s staunch resistance to Schengen more generally. This move will potentially result in Gibraltar having more features in common with what the EU refers to as outermost regions, which are remote areas within the EU where special provisions exist. To that end, this variation in approach by the United Kingdom has placed Gibraltar in an altogether different category of its own and invites new questions about the region’s specificity and status, as well as about the process of disintegration more generally. We argue that Gibraltar’s desire to join the Schengen area has presented challenges to the ongoing predicament of Brexit and has exacerbated its outlier position within the EU. This has given rise to specific questions that this article aims to address: What is the current situation of Gibraltar regarding the United Kingdom and the EU? And, what can the case of Gibraltar teach us in terms of disintegration? This article also examines, from a political science perspective, how reclassifying territories can be employed as a vector to facilitate the United Kingdom’s efforts to disintegrate from the EU, but underscores the ongoing issues surrounding the reclassification of Gibraltar and its people, with every effort to do so proving challenging. Keywords: Brexit; disintegration; EU; European integration; Gibraltar; outermost regions; overseas territories; United Kingdom Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:59-67 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Debate on the European Union’s Future From the Perspective of Regional Members of Parliament File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6746 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6746 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 45-58 Author-Name: Elisabeth Donat Author-Workplace-Name: Department for European Policy and the Study of Democracy, University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria Author-Name: Simon Lenhart Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany Abstract: Differentiated integration has become ubiquitous in the European Union today. However, the evaluation of differentiated integration by the academic community is much contested: While some see it as a remedy to political gridlock, others think of it as the beginning of the end of the EU (i.e., disintegration). Our article sheds light on the relationship between differentiated integration and disintegration from the viewpoint of subnational members of Parliament. Assuming that at least some scenarios of differentiated integration are related to disintegration, we report on data from a survey of seven EU member states about subnational members of Parliament’s preferences regarding future scenarios for the EU. Our results find that a preference for a Europe with a singular focus on “nothing but the single market” is related to a functionalist approach towards European integration and the perceived disintegration of the EU. This preference is especially prevalent among subnational MPs in the Czech Republic and Poland, both known for having opt-out solutions. While the Czech Republic constantly shows high levels of Euroscepticism in public surveys, the reverse is true in Poland. Obviously, a general commitment to the EU should not be equated with a shared common goal of further European integration. If such differences become permanent, European integration may genuinely be endangered. Keywords: differentiated integration; European disintegration; regional members of Parliament; regional parliaments Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:45-58 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Public Support for European Integration in Greece and Italy Between 2015 and 2020 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6751 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6751 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 29-44 Author-Name: Nikolas Kouloglou Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political, Economic, and Social Sciences, University of Avignon, France Author-Name: George N. Georgarakis Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract:The consecutive crises of the last decade have eroded public support for the EU, especially so among Southern European member states. A long-standing scholarly debate centers around whether it is economic or cultural considerations that drive public support for the EU. However, it is still unclear whether public attitudes toward European integration are driven primarily by economic evaluations or concerns associated with growing immigration flows. To explore this question, we draw on data from the Eurobarometer in Greece and Italy between 2015 and 2020. We find consistent evidence that diffuses public support for the EU and specific support for EU institutions are associated positively with economic evaluations of the European economy and household finances and negatively with opposition to immigration. Our study provides further insights into the dynamics of public support for the EU in the European periphery during critical times.
Keywords: European economy; European integration; European Union; Greece; immigration; Italy; political trust; public opinion Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:29-44 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Voter Disenchantment in the Aftermath of the 2005 EU Constitutional Referendum in France File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6675 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6675 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 16-28 Author-Name: Stefan Sliwa Ruiz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Global Economics and Business, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Lukas Linsi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Pascal Jaupart Author-Workplace-Name: World Bank, USA Abstract: In a popular referendum in 2005, French voters rejected their country’s adoption of a proposed EU Constitution. Yet, in seeming defiance of the popular vote, the government subsequently proceeded to implement the core of the legislation without consulting the public again. This article empirically examines the electoral impacts of these events. We build a comprehensive fine-grained dataset of nationwide election results for more than 36,000 metropolitan French municipalities. Employing cross-sectional analysis for all national elections held in the decade after the referendum vote, we find that the strength of a municipality’s rejection of the EU Constitution in 2005 is associated with a lower voter turnout, higher shares of blank votes, and larger gains for anti-system parties in subsequent elections. The findings are robust to various modelling choices and the inclusion of a large array of controls. The results indicate that bypassing a popular vote could entail protracted adverse effects on the quality of democratic participation and deliberation. Keywords: anti-system politics; electoral participation; EU; EU Constitution; France; party cartelization; referendum Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:16-28 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Preferences and Institutions in European (Dis)Integration File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6781 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.6781 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 5-15 Author-Name: Christophe Crombez Author-Workplace-Name: Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, USA / Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Pieterjan Vangerven Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Philippe van Gruisen Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Belgium / Department of Economics, Leiden University, The Netherlands Abstract: In this article, we present a game-theoretical model of political (dis)integration, and the incentives voters and politicians face during integration processes. We apply the model to the European Union. Preference homogeneity and economies of scale do not suffice to explain European integration. Rather, integration decisions are taken within an institutional setting that involves politicians with interests that may diverge from those of the voters they represent. Such politicians may take integration decisions that are not in line with their voters’ interests as a result. We show that voters can in some circumstances prevent integration by strategically electing representatives who are farther away from them. The model provides novel insights into the process of European (dis)integration and the voter–politician dynamics that determine it. In addition, our model offers an alternative explanation for the relative success of extremist parties in the European Union. Keywords: European integration; European representatives; political institutions; spatial models; voters’ interests Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:5-15 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Causes and Modes of European Disintegration File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7163 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i3.7163 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 3 Pages: 1-4 Author-Name: Martijn Huysmans Author-Workplace-Name: School of Economics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Sven Van Kerckhoven Author-Workplace-Name: Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Abstract: This thematic issue on the causes and modes of European disintegration seeks to answer two main questions: What are the causes of (potential) European disintegration across countries? And what are the actual and potential modes of European disintegration? The articles on the causes of EU disintegration go beyond the immediate causes of Brexit, to date the prime example of European disintegration. They address, for instance, the impact of ignoring the results of referendums on EU treaty changes. The articles demonstrate that the extensively studied proximate causes of Brexit may be different from more long-term drivers of potential disintegration in the UK and other member states. The second question raises a point that has been largely overlooked. Going beyond the growing literature on Brexit, differentiated integration, and non-compliance, the articles on the modes of European disintegration address issues such as (temporary) opt-outs from the Schengen agreement. The thematic issue is innovative not only due to the questions it raises but also by deploying a multi-disciplinary social science perspective. Contributions are quantitative, qualitative, and theoretical from a wide array of social science disciplines. Taken together, the contributions to this thematic issue advance scholarly understanding of European (dis)integration. Keywords: European Union; disintegration; euroscepticism; Brexit; withdrawal; secession; Schengen Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:1-4 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Evolution of Village (Self)Governance in the Context of Post‐Communist Rural Society File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6495 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6495 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 368-379 Author-Name: Edvin Zhllima Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economy and Agribusiness, Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania / Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education—Economics Institute (CERGE‐EI), Czech Republic Author-Name: Nicolas Hayoz Author-Workplace-Name: Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe, University of Fribourg, Switzerland Author-Name: Drini Imami Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economy and Agribusiness, Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania / Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education—Economics Institute (CERGE‐EI), Czech Republic Author-Name: Iliriana Miftari Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary, University of Pristina, Kosovo Abstract: The role of the village headman and council of elders is very important in many societies. The focus of this article is to analyse the evolution and the role of the (informal) intermediary institutions and actors in the context of changing society’s patterns and political landscape transformations. This article focuses on Albania and Kosovo, where village self-governing mechanisms played a crucial role in avoiding (often deadly) social conflicts during the post-communism transition. The article relies on in-depth interviews with involved actors at the local level, using the framework of evolutionary governance theory. The study shows that the role of the council of elders and village headman has been strong and important in times of weak central and local governance, while it weakened in times of strong politicization and increasingly patronizing role of the central government, thus not allowing for a right balance between legitimate community representation and accountability toward upper levels of governance. Keywords: Albania; communism; council of elders; informal institutions; Kosovo; self‐governing mechanism; village headman Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:368-379 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Local Self‐Governance and the State in South Sudan: Studying Gendered Tenure Relations in Times of Uncertainty File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6488 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6488 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 357-367 Author-Name: Janine Ubink Author-Workplace-Name: Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society, Leiden University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Bernardo Almeida Author-Workplace-Name: Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society, Leiden University, The Netherlands Abstract:With governance increasingly regarded as co-governance, states’ capacity to steer, correct, and discipline a wide range of self-governing actors becomes crucial for states’ effectiveness, efficiency, and democracy. This article investigates that capacity and the relationship between formal institutions and customary self-governance in areas of limited statehood. In South Sudan, the field of land governance can be regarded as an area of limited statehood. As land relations are closely connected to clan structures and intra-familial relationships, customary norms and institutions enjoy great legitimacy and are an important locus of local land governance and dispute resolution. The South Sudanese government has promulgated legal provisions for equal rights to property and inheritance that clash head-on with customary notions of gender roles in the family and the preservation of family land. By focusing on the case of women’s land rights in South Sudan, combining literature study with data from exploratory fieldwork in two South Sudanese towns, this article aims to reflect on the cohabitation of customary and formal norms and values and the role formal legal and administrative systems, in areas of limited statehood, can and do play in boundary setting for customary self-governance.
Keywords: areas of limited statehood; customary law; gender; land rights; legal pluralism; local self‐governance; South Sudan Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:357-367 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Exploring the Relationship Between Social Movement Organizations and the State in Latin America File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6383 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6383 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 346-356 Author-Name: Thomas Kestler Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science and Sociology, University of Würzburg, Germany Abstract: Under conditions of weak statehood, societal actors are supposed to assume functions usually attributed to the state. Social self-organization is expected to emerge when the state leaves important social problems unattended. Should social self-organization, therefore, be regarded as a reaction to state weakness and as compensation for state failure in the provision of basic services? Does society organize itself on its own in areas where the state is absent or ineffective? By the example of two Latin American social movements, this article aims to show that social self-organization—at least on a larger scale—is not independent of the state, but rather a result of a dynamic interaction with the state. The two examples this article explores are the middle-class Venezuelan neighborhood movement and the Argentine piquetero movement of unemployed workers. Both movements emerged as reactions to the state’s failure and retreat from essential social functions and both developed into extensive and influential social actors. For that reason, they can be regarded as crucial cases for observing the patterns and conditions of social self-organization and autonomous collective action within the specific Latin American context. Despite their different backgrounds and social bases, the two cases reveal remarkable similarities. They show that the emergence and development of self-organized social groups cannot be conceived simply as a reaction to state weakness, but rather should be viewed as a dynamic interaction with the state. Keywords: Argentina; neighborhood movement; piquetero movement; social movements; social self‐organization; state–society relations; Venezuela Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:346-356 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Community Forest Management: Weak States or Strong Communities? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6325 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6325 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 336-345 Author-Name: Bas Arts Author-Workplace-Name: Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands Author-Name: Jelle Behagel Author-Workplace-Name: Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands Author-Name: Jessica de Koning Author-Workplace-Name: Coastal and Marine Management, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands Author-Name: Marieke van der Zon Author-Workplace-Name: Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands Abstract: Community forest management (CFM) has become an influential approach in the sustainable use, management, and conservation of forests worldwide. It ranges from community-based self-governance of local village forests to co-management approaches with state forest agencies in public forests. However, analyses show complex relationships between states and communities in CFM. At least three ideal types can be identified. The first refers to local communities that collectively decide to manage surrounding forests themselves due to a lack of state involvement. As a manager of the public good, such absence of the state may easily lead to deforestation and forest degradation that such communities wish to avoid. A second type refers to the co-management approaches of local communities and state forest agencies. Here, forest officials and community members cooperate in managing local forests. A final type refers to indigenous communities with strong customary forest institutions whose territorial claims are recognized by the state. While communities always need specific institutions, knowledge, and tenure rights in place to make CFM perform, each ideal type presupposes various degrees of state capacity and state autonomy. The article concludes that weak states (to some degree) and strong communities (of a certain kind) may indeed form a “convincing liaison” in CFM, although it is not the only arrangement that may produce (some) positive social and environmental impacts on the ground, as the cases explored illustrate. Keywords: co‐management; community forest management; decentralized state; distant state; facilitating state; indigenous people; local communities; self‐governance; territorial recognition Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:336-345 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Housing as a Battlefield Between Self‐Organization and Resistance: The Case of Reclaim the City File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6449 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6449 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 326-335 Author-Name: Antje Daniel Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: Cities are a place of transformation, since cities are being challenged through various processes, among them gentrification. Likewise, cities are a space for innovation and new solutions, as many changes start locally. Reclaim the City is one such local movement: It is a response to weak statehood which results in a limited ability to solve the housing crisis and the continuation of spatial segregation in Cape Town. Gentrification deepens the housing crisis and has an impact on the most vulnerable groups, black and colored people, who are affected by eviction. Based on a qualitative study, this article first unpacks the weakness of the city authorities regarding housing and then analyzes the relationship between Reclaim the City and the city. This relationship is not to be understood as a binary, conflictual liaison; rather, the relationship is complex, involving resistance but also complementarity, because in the self-organized occupation Reclaim the City offers what the city is not able to provide. The response of the authorities is ambivalent: They welcome self-organization and yet try to control and delegitimize the occupation by criminalizing the occupants. The relationship between Reclaim the City and the city thus shows that self-organization does not necessarily lead to new interfaces between the state and social movements, as often discussed in the context of new municipalism, but rather housing becomes a field of social contestation in that the city and Reclaim the City negotiate for mutual acceptance and legitimation, at times with an open end. Keywords: housing; local self‐organization and governance; Reclaim the City; social movements; South Africa Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:326-335 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Strong Military and Weak Statehood: The Case of Self‐Governance Through Rasookh in Kashmir File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6484 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6484 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 315-325 Author-Name: Touseef Yousuf Mir Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, UK Abstract: The article focuses its gaze on the Indian-controlled valley of Kashmir to highlight how the militarily strong state resonates with weak statehood in Kashmir. Being faced with popular contentious politics, the state in Kashmir is argued to survive through militarised authoritarian control leading to the pervading social condition of fear and insecurity. Thus, rather than a provider of security, the situation in Kashmir is marked by the least expectations of security from the state. The article highlights rasookh as a means of self-governance popularly employed in Kashmir to socially navigate the prevalent precarious circumstances, especially drawing security by virtue of informal connections. The article becomes significant to firstly, highlight how the prevalent political structures condition and inform individual behaviour, and secondly, to examine the way different individuals develop institutionalised responses as an experience of those structures. The article through the case of Kashmir portrays how weak statehood in Kashmir predominantly informs the pervading social condition of fear and insecurity and how self-governance under rasookh becomes a means of compensating for the prevalent precarity. The article draws from the neo-institutionalist literature understanding the state as an ensemble of formal and informal institutions, mainly understanding institutions from the Lauthian perspective as ordered patterns of behaviour. From that perspective, rasookh is made sense of as an informal institution—an “uncodified but socially accepted pattern of behaviour”. The article provides original contributions by highlighting the under-researched societal aspect of analysing self-governance through rasookh (an informal institution) and highlighting everyday, societal dynamics that underpin it. Keywords: informal institutions; Kashmir; micro-regulation; rasookh; repression; self-governance; weak statehood Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:315-325 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Shared Streets: Choreographed Disorder in the Late Socialist City File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6466 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6466 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 305-314 Author-Name: Sandra Kurfürst Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Cologne, Germany Abstract: This article examines the local self-governance of streets and sidewalks in Hanoi, the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Streets and sidewalks are shared among diverse actors for various activities while being formally managed by the state. Since the passing of the Đổi Mới economic reform program in 1986, which paved the way for the development of a private sector economy, street trade has been flourishing in Hanoi. Private individuals, mostly women, temporarily occupy sidewalks and streets to sell their goods. This form of petty trade caters to urbanites’ everyday demand for fresh products and food. While many Hanoians are actually in favor of street trade, the municipality seeks to undermine and regulate street trade, as it contradicts some state administrators’ vision of a modern and civilized city. Drawing inspiration from Jacobs’ (1961) “sidewalk ballet,” this article particularly examines the social norms governing public space. As they constantly need to negotiate their right to the city, street traders develop tactics to circumvent the municipal sidewalk order. Following the rhythms of regular crackdowns on street trade, the emergence and vanishing of mediation spaces, and urbanites’ tactics, this contribution seeks to understand modes of urban governance over these shared spaces. This study draws on ethnographic data collected during one year of fieldwork, local newspaper analysis, and secondary literature. Keywords: Hanoi; post‐socialism; street trade; urban governance; Vietnam Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:305-314 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Civil Society Versus Local Self‐Governments and Central Government in V4 Countries: The Case of Co‐Creation File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6282 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6282 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 293-304 Author-Name: Michal Plaček Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Science, Charles University, Czech Republic Author-Name: Juraj Nemec Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Author-Name: Mária Murray Svidroňová Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University, Slovakia Author-Name: Paweł Mikołajczak Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Finance, Poznań University of Economics and Business, Poland Author-Name: Éva Kovács Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Corvinus University, Hungary / Lajos Lőrincz Department of Administrative Law, University of Public Service, Hungary Abstract: In the new EU member states, there are very few studies analyzing the role of central and local self-governments in co-design processes. Nevertheless, such studies are particularly important as co-creation takes place in the context of former post-communist countries where central power reigned supreme and cooperation with the civil sector was very limited. This article aims to enrich the existing debate on the role of central and local self-government in the context of co-creation at the local level—specifically to map the extent to which local and central governments in the Visegrad Four region (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) support local participatory budgeting initiatives as one of the most important forms of co-creation. The findings are very interesting, as each country has its situation and specificities. The (positive but also negative) role of the central state is limited but not invisible, except in the Czech Republic. The relations between civil society (and formal NGOs) and local self-governments are somewhat more similar within the countries studied. At the beginning of participatory budgeting, the civil sector and NGOs served as initiators and local self-governments as followers. However, this position has been steadily shifting towards the dominance of local self-governments and the marginalization of the civil society’s role. Keywords: co‐creation; local level; participatory budgeting; V4 countries Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:293-304 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: River Commoning and the State: A Cross‐Country Analysis of River Defense Collectives File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6316 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6316 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 280-292 Author-Name: Jaime Hoogesteger Author-Workplace-Name: Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Diana Suhardiman Author-Workplace-Name: Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, The Netherlands Author-Name: Rutgerd Boelens Author-Workplace-Name: Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands / Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Fabio de Castro Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Bibiana Duarte-Abadía Author-Workplace-Name: Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Juan Pablo Hidalgo-Bastidas Author-Workplace-Name: Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Janwillem Liebrand Author-Workplace-Name: International Development Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Nuria Hernández-Mora Author-Workplace-Name: New Water Culture Foundation, Spain Author-Name: Kanokwan Manorom Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathany University, Thailand Author-Name: Gert Jan Veldwisch Author-Workplace-Name: Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Jeroen Vos Author-Workplace-Name: Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands Abstract: Grassroots initiatives that aim to defend, protect, or restore rivers and riverine environments have proliferated around the world in the last three decades. Some of the most emblematic initiatives are anti-dam and anti-mining movements that have been framed, by and large, as civil society versus the state movements. In this article, we aim to bring nuance to such framings by analyzing broader and diverse river-commoning initiatives and the state–citizens relations that underlie them. To study these relations we build on notions of communality, grassroots scalar politics, rooted water collectives, and water justice movements, which we use to analyze several collective practices, initiatives, and movements that aim to protect rivers in Thailand, Spain, Ecuador, and Mozambique. The analysis of these cases shows the myriad ways in which river collectives engage with different manifestations of the state at multiple scales. As we show, while some collectives strategically remain unnoticed, others actively seek and create diverse spaces of engagement with like-minded citizen initiatives, supportive non-governmental organizations, and state actors. Through these relations, alliances are made and political space is sought to advance river commoning initiatives. This leads to a variety of context-specific multi-scalar state–citizens relations and river commoning processes in water governance arenas. Keywords: grassroots scalar politics; river commoning; state–citizens relations; water collectives; water justice movements Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:280-292 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Local Self‐Governance and Weak Statehood: A Convincing Liaison? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7166 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.7166 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 272-279 Author-Name: Antje Daniel Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Hans-Joachim Lauth Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science and Sociology, Julius‐Maximillians‐Universität Würzburg, Germany Author-Name: Eberhard Rothfuß Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences, University of Bayreuth, Germany Abstract: This thematic issue addresses the relationship between local self-governance and the state. Self-governance is understood as the rules that emerge in the local social and spatial context. Local self-governance of individual local groups, actors, communities, and their social and institutional arrangements are considered. From this situated collective entanglement, the interactions and relations with state authorities are analysed in the various contributions embedded in local contexts of different world regions and based on empirical social science research containing mostly interdisciplinary approaches. The nine case studies of this thematic issue reflect a variety of statehoods (weak to restrained), divers “intentionalities” of local self-governance (emancipatory and democratic, socio-economically, and socio-culturally oriented, security-driven or ecological), and their state-locality entanglements range between four forms of relationships: mutually supportive, conflictual, ambivalent, and avoiding. Keywords: local self‐governance; restrained statehood; self‐organisation; state; weak statehood Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:272-279 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Corpus‐Based Discourse Analysis of Liberal Studies Textbooks in Hong Kong: Legitimatizing Populism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6550 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6550 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 261-271 Author-Name: Yulong Li Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, City University of Macau, Macau / School of Education, University of Glasgow, UK Author-Name: Yuxi Wu Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, City University of Macau, Macau Author-Name: Mingfeng Xiao Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, City University of Macau, Macau Abstract: Researchers have discussed Hong Kong’s localist identities, nativist sentiments, and populism, but have not widely examined the extent to which populism could be perceived in education in Hong Kong. As the chief participants of the Occupying Central and the radical Anti-Extradition Bill movements in Hong Kong were students, this suggests the need to explore the relationship between populism and education, particularly the then-controversial liberal studies textbooks. According to contemporary news reports, liberal studies textbooks contained much content stigmatising the Chinese mainland. Previous studies of liberal studies textbooks applied qualitative discourse analysis methods. In this study, mixed-method analysis was applied to a specialised corpus comprising seven commercial liberal studies textbooks containing 248,339 Chinese characters in total to explore the extent to which liberal studies textbooks contain information concerning the key features of populism—the heightened division between the inner and outer groups. A division was found between positive images of Hong Kong and negative images of China in the narratives of commercial liberal studies textbooks. Accordingly, the textbooks can be understood to contain populism. The present study advocates that relevant educational watchdogs in Hong Kong provide more guidance on the writing and publishing of liberal studies textbooks in the future, keeping the enquiry-based spirit of the liberal studies course fulfilled, and urges stakeholders of Hong Kong education to consider teaching peace education and developing a more inclusive environment. Keywords: corpus linguistics; Hong Kong; liberal studies; populism; textbook Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:261-271 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Accountability Issues, Online Covert Hate Speech, and the Efficacy of Counter‐Speech File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6465 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6465 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 249-260 Author-Name: Fabienne Baider Author-Workplace-Name: Department of French and European Studies, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Abstract: Concerning individual or institutional accountability for online hate speech, research has revealed that most such speech is covert (veiled or camouflaged expressions of hate) and cannot be addressed with existing measures (e.g., deletion of messages, prosecution of the perpetrator). Therefore, in this article, we examine another way to respond to and possibly deflect hate speech: counter-speech. Counter-narratives aim to influence those who write hate speech, to encourage them to rethink their message, and to offer to all who read hate speech a critical deconstruction of it. We created a unique set of parameters to analyze the strategies used in counter-speech and their impact. Upon analysis of our database (manual annotations of 15,000 Twitter and YouTube comments), we identified the rhetoric most used in counter-speech, the general impact of the various counter-narrative strategies, and their specific impact concerning several topics. The impact was defined by noting the number of answers triggered by the comment and the tone of the answers (negative, positive, or neutral). Our data reveal an overwhelming use of argumentative strategies in counter-speech, most involving reasoning, history, statistics, and examples. However, most of these argumentative strategies are written in a hostile tone and most dialogues triggered are negative. We also found that affective strategies (based on displaying positive emotions, for instance) led to a positive outcome, although in most cases these narratives do not receive responses. We recommend that education or training—even machine learning such as empathetic bots—should focus on strategies that are positive in tone, acknowledging grievances especially. Keywords: accountability; argumentative strategies; counter‐speech; covert hate speech; emotional appeal Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:249-260 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Twitting Against the Enemy: Populist Radical Right Parties Discourse Against the (Political) “Other” File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6391 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6391 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 235-248 Author-Name: Laura Cervi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain Author-Name: Santiago Tejedor Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain Author-Name: Mónica Gracia Villar Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidad Europea del Atlántico, Spain Abstract: There is a common agreement in considering populism as a Manichean worldview that oversimplifies and polarizes political options reducing them to a symbolical struggle between an “us” and a “them.” “Us” is embodied by “the people,” equated with “good,” and “them” is identified by political “Others,” often embodied by “the elites” who are depicted as inherently “evil.” Naturally, the nature and composition of the people and the elite vary according to both ideology and political opportunities. This article examines the discursive construction of political opponents in two populist radical right parties: Lega in Italy and Vox in Spain. Based on the analysis of a selection of tweets by the two party leaders, Santiago Abascal and Matteo Salvini, this study applies clause-based semantic text analysis to detect the main discursive representations of political opponents. The article concludes that Salvini focuses all the attention on the left, while Abascal, although predominantly identifying the left as the main enemy, also targets pro-independence parties. The discursive construction of the “enemy” is based on two main strategies: demonization, the framing of opponents as “enemies of the people” who, along with dangerous “Others” such as immigrants, conspire against the “people” and are blamed for everything that is “wrong” in society; secondly, character assassination of individual politicians through personal attacks, which aim to undermine their reputation and deflect attention from the real issues towards their personal traits and actions. Keywords: character assassination; demonization; Italy; Lega; political discourse; populism; populist radical right; social media; Spain; Twitter; Vox Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:235-248 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Polarization in Media Discourses on Europeanization in Spain File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6419 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6419 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 221-234 Author-Name: Ana Pérez-Escoda Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication and Arts, Antonio de Nebrija University, Spain Author-Name: Sonia Boulos Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Law and International Relations, Antonio de Nebrija University, Spain Author-Name: Maria-José Establés Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Lucía García-Carretero Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Madrid Open University, Spain Abstract: Political and media polarization has had a detrimental impact on democratic principles and democratic processes on a global scale. In Europe, such polarization has eroded the trust in national and European institutions and has challenged the basic values that stand at the heart of the European integration project. The aim of this study is to analyze Spanish media discourses on Europeanization, with an attempt to identify key areas in which polarizing narratives related to Europeanization are more prevalent. To conduct our study, six national media outlets were selected based on four criteria: media format, ownership, ideology, and consumption. A final sample of 540 news items collected between July 2021 to March 2022 was selected for analysis. Using a qualitative methodological approach, the study was carried out in two stages. In the first phase, we conducted a content analysis to identify the main topics discussed in relation to the European Union and the actors represented in them. This led to the identification of polarizing narratives and discourses emerging in the context of the discussed topics. In the second phase, we used critical discourse analysis to analyze polarizing discourses. Keywords: democracy; Europeanization; European Union; media discourses; polarization; political communication; Spanish media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:221-234 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Southern European Journalists’ Perceptions of Discursive Menaces in the Age of (Online) Delegitimization File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6397 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6397 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 210-220 Author-Name: David Blanco-Herrero Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Communication, University of Salamanca, Spain Author-Name: Sergio Splendore Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Author-Name: Martín Oller Alonso Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Abstract: In a new communication context, factors such as the rise of hate speech, disinformation, or a precarious financial and employment situation in the media have made discursive menaces gain increasing significance. Threats of this kind challenge the legitimacy of institutional news media and professional journalists. This article contributes to the existing literature on the legitimization of journalism and boundary work through a study that seeks to understand the perceptions of Southern European journalists of the threats that they encounter in their work and the factors that help explain them. To this end, a survey of 398 journalists in Spain, Italy, and Greece was conducted to learn what personal or professional factors influenced their views and experiences of discursive and non-discursive menaces. Results show that discursive threats, such as hateful or demeaning speech and public discrediting of one’s work, are the most frequent to the safety of journalists, while expressions of physical violence are less common. Younger and more educated journalists tended to perceive themselves as having been victims of discursive menaces more often, although not many significant differences were observed between different groups of journalists. Even though it could show a worrying trend, this finding can also indicate a growing awareness about menaces of this kind. Keywords: discursive menace; Greece; hate speech; Italy; journalists; legitimacy of journalism; Southern Europe; Spain Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:210-220 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “My Way or No Way”: Political Polarization and Disagreement Among Immigrant Influencers and Their Followers File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6375 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6375 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 198-209 Author-Name: Daniela Jaramillo-Dent Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Media Research, Media Change, and Innovation Division, University of Zurich, Switzerland Abstract: This article explores the online discussions between Carlos and Lizzy, two Latin American immigrant influencers in the United States with profiles on TikTok and Instagram. The dataset comprises a 90-minute live debate between them, that took place on September 25th, 2021, broadcast on Instagram and available on one of the profiles, as well as 1200 comments by 933 different viewers, received during the broadcast. The analysis relies on previous research on polarization, deliberation, and disagreement on social media platforms and it provides insights regarding the political and ideological diversity that exists among immigrant influencers and their followers. It focuses on the discursive strategies deployed by these content creators to discuss issues related to immigration reform and activism from two distinct political stances. It also provides a glimpse into topics of interest for the immigrant community as reflected by these content creators and commenting followers. The findings reflect the value of the ongoing relationship between content creators and their followers in the personal support and acceptance Carlos receives. In contrast, Lizzy is largely rejected and attacked, but a few of her arguments resonate with viewers. Comments about the debate itself are mostly negative due to the perceived low quality of the arguments, the mocking attitude of both debaters, and the need for a moderator to control the times. Comments that are critical of the debate often describe expectations of a more civil discussion and pathways to improve future debates. Keywords: debate; immigration; influencers; Instagram; platforms; political polarization; social media; TikTok; United States of America Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:198-209 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Hate Speech and Polarization Around the “Trans Law” in Spain File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6374 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6374 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 187-197 Author-Name: Patricia Sánchez-Holgado Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Communication, University of Salamanca, Spain Author-Name: Carlos Arcila-Calderón Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Communication, University of Salamanca, Spain Author-Name: Marcos Gomes-Barbosa Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Communication, University of Salamanca, Spain Abstract: The approval of the law for the real and effective equality of trans people and for the guarantee of the rights of LGTBI people (the Trans Law) has been one of the most controversial legislative actions in recent years; however, there is very little knowledge about the public’s perception of the issue and how they express their opinions in the public sphere. Supporters of the law consider that the free determination of gender is essential to end discrimination against trans people, while critics express hate speech that can be a precursor to violent actions. This work aims to fill a gap, studying the relationship between the perceptions of a controversial and polarizing issue and their public expression through social media. The main objective is to analyze the public’s perception, with special attention to age, gender, and political ideology, and compare it with the hate speech posted on Twitter. The methodology presents a survey of citizens and the use of computational methods to analyze Twitter messages with a machine-learning algorithm that classifies them as hate or not hate. The results indicate that the majority (80.1%) support the approval of the law, while those close to left and center political ideologies favor the law more than those who define themselves as right-wing. There are no significant differences according to age. Of the messages analyzed, 9.7% were classified as hate. Keywords: hate speech; LGTBI; polarization; public perception; Spain; Trans Law; transphobia; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:187-197 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Voter’s Perception of Political Messages Against the Elite Classes in Spain: A Quasi‐Experimental Design File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6369 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6369 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 175-186 Author-Name: Juan Enrique Gonzálvez-Vallés Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Theories and Analysis, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Author-Name: José Daniel Barquero-Cabrero Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Research, ESERP Business & Law School, Spain Author-Name: Natalia Enseñat-Bibiloni Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Research, ESERP Business & Law School, Spain Abstract: Demonization constitutes the construction of a simplified symbolic reality through the prism of hatred. The elite classes have been framed within the discourse of far-left parties in Spain to make them antagonistic to their target audience. In this area, research tends to use explicit measures, but few have used implicit measures. This article aims to assess both types of voter perceptions of anti-elite class messages in Spain. Eighty Spanish voters belonging to left- and right-wing ideologies participated in this study. Implicit attitudes were measured through the implicit association test. The result shows that demonization is deepening in various layers of society in order to provoke a confrontation with the elite classes. Social networks have emerged as a means of social control, but they are not perceived as such by the subjects but rather as an additional informational or purely propagandistic element. But even among the public who are aware of the latter, the more their perception of the elite classes is limited to demonization, the more extreme their social vision is. Keywords: demonization; elite classes; hate speech; polarization; political discourse; social networks Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:175-186 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Spanish Political Communication and Hate Speech on Twitter During the Russian Invasion of Ukraine File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6328 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6328 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 160-174 Author-Name: Antonio José Baladrón-Pazos Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Author-Name: Beatriz Correyero-Ruiz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, Universidad Católica de Murcia, Spain Author-Name: Benjamín Manchado-Pérez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Financial and Actuarial Economics & Statistics, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Abstract: Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the polarized discourse of the West vs. Russia seems to have escalated to levels similar to those during the Cold War period. The aim of this article, which is centered on the case of Spain, is to discover to what extent communication from political parties contributed to such polarization by encouraging hate speech. To this end, messages sent by the political parties represented in the Spanish parliament, over the social network Twitter during the first 60 days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, were analyzed: A total of 3,186 tweets from 67 official accounts, both from these political parties and their main leaders, were coded. The results showed that despite social networks in general—and Twitter in particular—being a favorable environment for the promotion of hate speech, the communication of Spanish political parties was generally characterized by political correctness and moderation. The presence of the main indicators of hate speech analyzed (threats, criticism, ridicule, or insults) was very minor. The present article associates this finding to other variables such as the tone of the tweets (informative, opinionated), their scope (international, national), and engagement (replies, quotes, retweets), among other factors. It is concluded that Spanish political authorities had a socially-responsible behavior in the case analyzed, reinforcing the importance of public diplomacy to counteract hate speech. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the polarized discourse West vs. Russia seems to have escalated to levels like those of the so-called Cold War period. The aim of this article, focused on the case of Spain, is to discover to what extent the communication from political parties has contributed to such polarization by encouraging hate speech. To this end, the social network Twitter messages by the political parties represented in the Spanish Parliament during the first 60 days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine were analyzed; a total of 3,186 tweets from 67 official accounts from the political parties and their main leaders were coded. The results show that even though social networks in general -or Twitter in particular- are a favorable environment for the promotion of hate speech, the communication of Spanish political parties was characterized, in general, by political correctness and moderation. It is not in vain that the presence of main indicators of hate speech analyzed (threats, criticism, mockery, or insults) were very minor. The article relates this to other variables such as the tone of the tweets (informative, opinionated), the scope (international, national) or engagement (likes, comments), among others. It is concluded that Spanish political authorities have a socially responsible behavior in the analyzed case, reinforcing the importance of public diplomacy to counteract hate speech. Keywords: hate speech; polarization; political communication; political parties; political social responsibility; Russia; Spain; Twitter; Ukraine Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:160-174 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Dilemmas Between Freedom of Speech and Hate Speech: Russophobia on Facebook and Instagram in the Spanish Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6330 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6330 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 147-159 Author-Name: David Caldevilla-Domínguez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Theories and Communication Analysis, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Almudena Barrientos-Báez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Theories and Communication Analysis, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Graciela Padilla-Castillo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and New Media, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Abstract: On March 11, 2022, Russia opened a criminal case against Meta, the parent firm that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It alleged that Facebook had modified its community standards, broadening its concept of freedom of speech to allow alleged hate speech against Russian citizens, amid the conflict in Ukraine. Reuters (2022, para. 1) refers to a “temporary change in the company’s hate speech policy,” according to confidential Facebook documents. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called the change “worrying” (“Rusia y Ucrania,” 2022, para. 11). In this context, this article addresses two objectives: (a) to explore and comment on the state of the art on freedom of expression in social networks and its deontological limitations to prevent hatred against nationalities (EU legislation, scientific research, Twitter, and Instagram deontological limitations); and (b) to study the emergence of possible cases of Russophobia, in a mediatized form, through the news of Spanish media and the comments they generated on their Facebook and Instagram sites. A triangular methodology is used: analytical and longitudinal commentary on EU definitions and standards on hate speech; quantitative analysis of news items in Spanish media on Russophobia, on Facebook and Instagram, published between January 1, 2022, and October 20, 2022; and mixed analysis of the engagement of these news items, thanks to the Fanpage Karma tool. The media coverage of Russophobia is scarce, with an average of one news item per media and, exceptionally, with two news items in very few cases. It is also striking that in such a long period, only six hashtags are used. Keywords: deontology; Facebook; freedom of speech; hate speech; Instagram; media; Meta; Russia; Russophobia; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:147-159 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Side Effect of Political Standing: Corporate Activism and Its Impact on Stock Returns File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6306 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6306 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 138-146 Author-Name: Teresa Pintado Blanco Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Marketing, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Carlota López-Aza Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Marketing, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Joaquín Sánchez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Marketing, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Pablo Gutiérrez‐Rodríguez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Administration, Universidad de León, Spain Abstract: Taking sides on controversial political issues such as gun control, abortion, immigration, or diversity is increasingly common among large companies. What remains unclear, however, is whether this type of strategy—known as “corporate activism”—has positive or negative effects on these companies. The use of the concept of corporate activism on different variables affecting the companies is relatively recent. This article analyses the effect of corporate activism on the stock market performance of US companies through the analysis of the sample collected. Although there are some recent articles published on this topic, none of them measures the risk associated with the use of this type of strategy. For the development of the research, the well-known Fama–French modelling framework is applied to estimate the differences between companies that participate in corporate activism initiatives versus those that remain outside this strategy. The findings complement previous research showing that companies that use corporate activism have lower market risk than companies that do not engage in this type of strategy. These results can be useful in identifying the advantages and disadvantages of corporate activism initiatives and, in addition, they can also help companies to evaluate the use of corporate activism as a strategic tool and as a driver of social change. Keywords: corporate activism; corporate social advocacy; corporate social responsibility; firm value Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:138-146 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Demonising Migrants in Contexts of Extremism: Analysis of Hate Speech in UK and Spain File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6302 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6302 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 127-137 Author-Name: Darren Lilleker Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Bournemouth University, UK Author-Name: Marta Pérez-Escolar Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Spain Abstract: Hate speech has been seen as a problem within democratic societies that has been exacerbated by social media. While platforms claim to moderate content, this proves impossible. Studying popular platforms in the UK and Spain and examining content within community pages dedicated to right-wing parties, we use framing analysis to identify the predominant frames in user comments that contained hate speech against migrants. Our research demonstrates a frequent use of arguments that encourage xenophobic and discriminatory attitudes to flourish. Specifically, we find that immigrants are commonly framed as potential criminals, people who steal resources and erode norms of the dominant culture and traditions. The fact that these frames are commonly used is worrying and indicates xenophobic attitudes exist within both societies under study. However, it is difficult to imagine regulatory systems that would prevent these attitudes from being expressed. Rather, we argue that it is more important to focus on correcting the conditions that cause such attitudes to take hold within a society. Keywords: extremism; far‐right parties; hate speech; immigration; social media; Spain; UK Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:127-137 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Social Media and Otherness: The Case of #Islamterrorism on TikTok File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6299 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6299 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 114-126 Author-Name: Sabina Civila Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, Huelva University, Spain Author-Name: Mónica Bonilla-del-Rio Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, Huelva University, Spain Author-Name: Ignacio Aguaded Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, Huelva University, Spain Abstract: Social media and their participatory characteristics promote the construction of meanings that differ from those emitted by mainstream media outlets, becoming a tool that enables a reconfiguration of the dominant discourses. TikTok offers unique possibilities to confront the neoliberal imaginary and open a space for debate, incorporating political viewpoints and establishing itself as a new communication scenario. Regarding news about jihadism, many researchers have observed that those who practice Islam are classified as a monolithic entity, and this entire religious group is generalized as a threat to modern societies. The main objective of our research is thus to know the discourses used on TikTok to respond to the binomial Islam = terrorism spread by mainstream media and the affordances of this platform used to challenge this misconception. Using the snowball method, a multimodal analysis was conducted by identifying TikTok videos with the hashtags #yihadista, #yihad, and #islamterrorismo (in its English and Spanish versions) to explore the uses of the TikTok platform. The resulting selection criteria included: (a) content related to mainstream media discourses on jihadism, (b) discussion of a topic related to Islam and terrorism, and (c) where the content creator declares him/herself to be a Muslim. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted to provide an enhanced understanding of how the media promote the need to generate a counter-narrative on TikTok. The results reveal that discourses from Muslims that combat Islam = terrorism discourses are constructed within the spiral of the dominant narrative, thus visualizing the negative discourses about Islam. Keywords: Islam; media; prosumers; religion; social media; TikTok Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:114-126 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Process of the Transfer of Hate Speech to Demonization and Social Polarization File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6663 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6663 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 109-113 Author-Name: Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain / ESAI Business School, Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo, Ecuador Author-Name: Bárbara Castillo-Abdul Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Author-Name: Pedro Cuesta-Valiño Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics and Business Administration, University of Alcalá, Spain Abstract: We are living through a time of major political changes due to the rise of populist leaders and the resurgence of extreme ideological movements. The emergence of this phenomenon is due, to a large extent, to the ease with which these political actors can disseminate and spread their messages without any limits through social networks, leaving aside the former “fourth power” of the media as filterers and reinterpreters of information. Generally, the formula used by these leaders and movements is usually based on symbolic social division and polarization through hate speeches that allow demonizing their adversaries while antagonizing the issuers: a discursive “us” against “them” based on verbal violence to dehumanize an “exogroup.” We want to discuss the importance of understanding the process of communicational transfer—which begins with hate speech and evolves into demonization and social polarization—as a strategic basis for creating an ideal scenario for the growth and strengthening of populist discourse, which is reductionist and simplifying in nature. Keywords: hate discourse; political communication; political responsibility; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:109-113 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Navigating Regional Regime Complexity: How and Why Does the European Union Cooperate With Regional Organizations? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6297 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6297 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 97-108 Author-Name: Diana Panke Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Freiburg, Germany Author-Name: Sören Stapel Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Freiburg, Germany Abstract: The number of regional organizations in Europe has increased in the aftermaths of the Second World War and the Cold War. Whenever regional organizations share member states and are equipped with identical policy competencies at the same time, regime complexity comes into play. Unmanaged regime complexity has not only increased over time but can also bring about negative consequences that can reduce the effectiveness of regional governance. To address these challenges, regional organizations can turn into external actors and cooperate with each other. While some of these cooperation agreements are shallow, others are deep and differ in the specification of policy scopes, instruments, and designated arenas. Thus, we pursue the following research questions: (a) How frequently does the EU cooperate with other regional organizations in the regional regime complex? (b) How does the design of cooperation differ? We show that the EU is an active shaper of regime complexes, not only when it comes to constructing them in the first place, but also with respect to navigating complexity. The EU has entered formal cooperative agreements with most of the regional organizations with which it overlaps. The EU concluded many agreements because it possesses the necessary capacities and is able to speak with one voice externally. We show that the design of agreements is influenced by ideological distances with the other regional organizations. Keywords: European Union; inter‐organizational cooperation; inter‐organizational relations; overlapping regionalism; regime complexity; regional organizations Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:97-108 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: European Leadership and European Youth in the Climate Change Regime Complex File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6500 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6500 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 84-96 Author-Name: Amandine J. Orsini Author-Workplace-Name: CReSPo, Université Saint‐Louis – Bruxelles, Belgium Author-Name: Yi Hyun Kang Author-Workplace-Name: CReSPo, Université Saint‐Louis – Bruxelles, Belgium Abstract: Environmental degradation is one of the most significant challenges faced by humanity, yet current global politics struggle to implement collective solutions. Previous research has suggested that the EU has a leadership role in the international climate change regime complex, which refer to a set of overlapping institutions that address different aspects of climate governance. Moreover, within these regime complexes, non-state actors have been found to have an active role. Building on the literature on regime complexes and non-state actors, we study the specific role of European non-state actors in furthering the EU’s agenda in the climate change regime complex. More precisely, we focus on European youth organizations. Indeed, youth have recently embraced the global climate agenda very actively while receiving limited attention from scholars. This article is based on the analysis of a database of youth organizations active in several institutions of the climate change regime complex, interviews with European officials and European youth actors, and documentary analysis. The analysis shows that EU interactions with European youth have been slow, while the need for coordination between the two is clear. On an analytical level, we contribute to the academic debate on how governmental entities such as the EU could shape international regime complexes with the support of non-state actors. Keywords: climate change; climate change regime complex; EU leadership; international environmental negotiations; youth Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:84-96 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Governance Through Regime Complexity: What Role for the EU in the African Security Regime Complex? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6356 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6356 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 72-83 Author-Name: Malte Brosig Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa Author-Name: Friedrich Plank Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Johannes Gutenberg‐University Mainz, Germany Author-Name: Yf Reykers Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Abstract: The international response to armed conflict in Africa often takes the form of a regime complex characterized by institutional proliferation, overlap, unclear hierarchies, and multiple interconnections. At the same time, the course of conflict is hardly predictable. In such an environment, how can component units (institutional fora) of a regime complex effectively govern through complexity? We explore this question by focusing on the EU as an important actor within regime complexes. Building on the regime complexity literature and complexity theory, we identify four conditions. We argue that actors who operate as resource hubs, create complementarity, support system self-organization, and practice adaptive forms of peacebuilding are best placed to manage regime complexity. Empirically we probe these assumptions in the context of the Sahelian security regime complex and the role the EU is playing in it. Keywords: European Union; regime complexity; Sahel; security Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:72-83 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Influencing the International Transport Regime Complex: The EU’s Climate Action in ICAO and IMO File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6300 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6300 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 62-71 Author-Name: George Dikaios Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Author-Name: Spyros Blavoukos Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International & European Economic Studies, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece Abstract: Regime complexes entail a variety of institutions with a degree of overlap in terms of thematic issues and participating actors. The EU is such an actor engaging with other governmental and non-governmental entities in the formation and evolution of regime complexes. In this article, we examine the role of the EU in the international transport regime complex, and more specifically in two of its core international organizations, namely ICAO and IMO. Our actor-based approach focuses on how the EU navigates between these two constitutive components of the global transport regime complex, advancing climate change mitigation measures. Our empirical material shows how the EU’s active engagement in ICAO contributed to the organization’s shift vis-à-vis the role of the aviation industry in greenhouse gas emissions. Besides the EU learning process that occurred and led to a more engaging and less conflictual EU approach in IMO, the ICAO achievement increased pressure and created a more conducive environment for the respective recognition of the maritime industry’s share in climate deterioration. In this respect, the EU benefited from the structure of the transport regime complex to pursue its own preferences. Keywords: climate diplomacy; European Union; ICAO; IMO; transport regime complex Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:62-71 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Expanding, Complementing, or Substituting Multilateralism? EU Preferential Trade Agreements in the Migration Regime Complex File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6341 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6341 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 49-61 Author-Name: Paula Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva, Switzerland / Cologne Center for Comparative Politics, University of Cologne, Germany Author-Name: Sandra Lavenex Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva, Switzerland Author-Name: Philipp Lutz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva, Switzerland / Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Intense pressure for international solutions and weak support for multilateral cooperation have led the EU to increasingly rely on its strongest foreign policy tool in the pursuit of migration policy goals: preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Starting from the fragmentary architecture of the migration regime complex we examine how the relevant content of the EU PTAs relates to multilateral institutions. Depending on the constellation of policy objectives, EU competence, and international interdependence, we propose a set of hypotheses regarding the conditions under which EU bilateral outreach via PTAs expands, complements, or substitutes international norms. Based on an original dataset of migration provisions in all EU PTAs signed between 1960 and 2020, we find that the migration policy content in EU PTAs expands or complements the objectives of multilateral institutions only to a very limited extent. Instead, the predominant constellation is one of substitution in which the EU uses its PTAs to promote migration policy objectives that depart from those of existing multilateral institutions. Keywords: EU; migration; preferential trade agreements; regime complexity; venue‐shopping Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:49-61 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: EU Orchestration in the Nuclear Weapons Regime Complex File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6323 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6323 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 39-48 Author-Name: Megan Dee Author-Workplace-Name: Division of History, Heritage, and Politics, University of Stirling, UK Abstract: While often recognised as a difficult actor in global efforts addressing the proliferation, control, and disarmament of nuclear weapons, the EU is also assumed to have the potential to play a more cohesive “state-like” role, especially in multilateral forum such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons review cycle. Such assumptions raise expectations of EU external action and influence, which the EU then invariably fails to meet. This article offers a reframing of how we understand the EU as an actor, focusing on its role in the nuclear weapons regime complex. Specifically, the article considers how, and under what conditions, the EU orchestrates within and across the nuclear weapons regime complex. Drawing on the orchestration and regime complex scholarship, alongside empirical data of EU external action from 2003 to 2019, the article shows how the EU’s natural proclivity for effective multilateralism, coupled with its functional limitations, the political cleavages impeding both the EU and multilateral progress within the regime complex, and the presence of like-minded intermediaries, create ripe conditions for EU orchestration in this field. It further argues that while the EU has struggled to inject agency within individual nuclear negotiation forums, its use of orchestration as a soft and indirect mode of governance is not only well-established but advancing. Orchestration is therefore found to serve as an important metric for understanding and evaluating the scope of EU agency in the nuclear weapons regime complex. Keywords: EU; international organisation; nuclear weapons; orchestration; performance; regime complex Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:39-48 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Backdoor Bargaining: How the European Union Navigates the Food Aid Regime Complex File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6307 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6307 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 29-38 Author-Name: Matias E. Margulis Author-Workplace-Name: School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, Canada Abstract: Scholars have long observed that states play off overlapping international institutions against one another in an effort to advance their policy objectives. This article identifies a strategy utilized by the EU in response to regime complexity that I term “backdoor bargaining.” Unlike forum-shopping, regime-shifting, and competitive-regime creation strategies, which states use to move multilateral negotiations to an institution that they expect will produce a more favorable outcome, backdoor bargaining involves a state using negotiations within one institution to gain an advantage in negotiations taking place at another distinct institution in a regime complex. I demonstrate the plausibility of backdoor bargaining by showing that the EU used the renegotiation of the Food Aid Convention as a strategy to gain bargaining leverage in the agriculture negotiations at the World Trade Organization. The article also offers insights into the potential consequences of international regime complexity for the EU as a global actor and the coherence of its foreign policies. Keywords: European Union; Food Aid Convention; international negotiation; policy coherence; regime complexes; trade; World Trade Organization Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:29-38 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Does the EU Benefit From Increased Complexity? Capital Punishment in the Human Rights Regime File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6304 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6304 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 17-28 Author-Name: Robert Kissack Author-Workplace-Name: Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), Spain Abstract: This article questions how the EU has acted to increase the complexity of the human rights regime through the process of incorporating a new issue area into its scope and to what extent has it benefitted from that process. By examining the breadth of the regime complex, between 1991–2021, this research shows how UN bodies, regional organisations, and civil society associations increasingly consider the death penalty a human rights issue instead of an exclusively domestic legal one. The article draws on a comprehensive archival review tracing the process of reframing capital punishment, the actions undertaken by the EU contributing to this process, and the benefits it receives from increased regime complexity. This leads to an affirmative answer to the previous questions, arguing that the EU’s actions in its foreign policy, anti-death penalty stance, and promotion of civil society, facilitated a reconfiguration of the human rights regime complex towards the rejection of capital punishment. It also provides important insights into the limitations of the literature on EU actorness in the UN system, which trains its eye primarily on legal representation and member-state cooperation. While this applies to formal international organisations, characterising the post-1945 multilateral order, utilising the study of regime complexity provides a more precise assessment of EU action in the fragmented and increasingly informal institutions constituting global governance today. Keywords: death penalty; EU; foreign policy; human rights; regime complexity; UN Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:17-28 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Explaining the EU’s Uneven Influence Across the International Regime Complex in Shadow Banking File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6272 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6272 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 6-16 Author-Name: Lucia Quaglia Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Bologna, Italy Author-Name: Aneta Spendzharova Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Abstract: This article shows that the EU has exerted uneven influence within the global regime complex in shadow banking. Why? We seek to explain the variation in the EU’s ability to exert influence across different elemental regimes—those on hedge funds and securitization—in the broader regime complex over time. In hedge funds regulation, the EU has pursued more stringent international rules, to no avail. In securitization, the EU has been more successful in promoting more lenient regulation at the international level. We focus on the EU’s internal cohesiveness (which can change over time) as the key explanatory variable. Keywords: Bank of England; EU cohesiveness; European Central Bank; finance; hedge funds; international regime complexity; securitization; shadow banking Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:6-16 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The European Union as an Actor Navigating International Regime Complexes File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6901 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i2.6901 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 2 Pages: 1-5 Author-Name: Tom Delreux Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science Louvain‐Europe, University of Louvain, Belgium Author-Name: Joseph Earsom Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science Louvain‐Europe, University of Louvain, Belgium Abstract: Global governance in many domains is increasingly characterised by the existence of international regime complexes—i.e., sets of overlapping institutional fora taking up different aspects of a broader issue area. As an international actor, the EU faces a context of such international regime complexity. Yet, little is known about how the EU navigates international regime complexes and how regime complexes impact the EU’s behaviour in individual fora. This thematic issue, therefore, seeks to improve our understanding of how different manifestations of international regime complexes affect the EU as an international actor and to provide empirical insight into the ways actors like the EU navigate international regime complexes. In this editorial, we situate the thematic issue within the broader academic debates on the EU’s role in international regime complexity, argue for the need to study the EU as an actor therein, and provide an overview of the thematic issue’s objectives and the nine articles that comprise it. Keywords: EU; EU external action; international organizations; regime complexity Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:1-5 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Embedded Liberalism and Health Populism in the UK in a Post-Truth Era File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5923 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.5923 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 272-279 Author-Name: Louise Dalingwater Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Sorbonne Université, France Abstract: The National Health Service (NHS), as a symbol of public health protection in the UK, was weaponised in pro-Brexit debates. It was suggested that European integration might inherently have undermined embedded liberalism and notably contributed to what Ruggie described as the “unbundling of sovereignty” (Ruggie, 1993). The manipulation of the NHS by right-wing populists has already been the focus of a number of articles, but calls to protect public health care from global threats have also come from left-wing politicians and activists. This article is particularly interested in socialist populist appeals to protect health care. It aims to show that for socialists the compromise between capital and labour and the protection of welfare systems, which is referred to as embedded liberalism, has not been achieved. In fact, furthering trade and investment is currently seen to be compromising the last remnants of a welfare state, which is embodied by the NHS in the UK. This conceptual article will thus start by presenting the theory of embedded liberalism. It will then establish the link between the breakdown of embedded liberalism in relation to health care systems. It will finally present populist and activist narratives on health and the UK’s national health service from an international perspective. It draws on secondary literature and a corpus of popular press articles and grey literature produced by civil society organisations. Keywords: embedded liberalism; National Health Service; populism; UK Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:272-279 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The WTO and the Covid‐19 “Vaccine Apartheid”: Big Pharma and the Minefield of Patents File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6177 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6177 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 261-271 Author-Name: Stéphane Paquin Author-Workplace-Name: École nationale d’administration publique, Université du Québec, Canada Author-Name: Kristine Plouffe-Malette Author-Workplace-Name: Faculté de droit, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada Abstract:Unequal access to vaccines for the Covid-19 pandemic, also referred to as “vaccine apartheid,” has marginalized low-income countries again. In October 2020, India and South Africa proposed a temporary waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention of Covid-19 at the World Trade Organization (WTO). An agreement was later reached in Geneva on June 17, 2022. The objective of this article is to analyze the negotiation and agreement reached at the WTO. This article explores the difficulties of creating international public good in the field of public health within the milieu of powerful actors, namely big pharmaceutical companies with vested interests. The central argument of this article is that this agreement alone will not solve the vaccine access problem for low-income countries. It is too restrictive, does not cover trade secrets and know-how, production capacity, availability of raw materials, and even adds new limitations that did not exist before. The best option to promote the production of quality vaccines in low-income countries is to share technology and know-how on a voluntary basis through production agreements. One way to facilitate the cooperation of large pharmaceutical corporation is to make it easier for low-income countries to use compulsory licenses. Simplifying the use of this mechanism could help encourage pharmaceutical companies to enter into voluntary licensing agreements.
Keywords: Big Pharma; Covid vaccine; TRIPS Agreement; intellectual property rights; waiver of patents; World Trade Organization Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:261-271 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Trade Linkages or Disconnects? Labor Rights and Data Privacy in US Digital Trade Policy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6031 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6031 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 249-260 Author-Name: Jean-Baptiste Velut Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Research on the English‐speaking World (CREW), Sorbonne Nouvelle University, France Abstract: The ever-expanding regulatory scope of “new generation” trade agreements has created new linkages, and thus, new spheres of political conflicts opposing advocates of trade liberalization and free trade critics seeking to make globalization more socially responsible. Scholars have provided different explanations to understand the determining factors behind attempts to re-embed trade, but little attention has been given to the persistence of “trade disconnects”—as opposed to trade linkages—between economic issues and social or environmental externalities that, at the domestic level, can hardly be dissociated. This article proposes to analyze the dynamics and factors of what might be described as persistent disconnects or enduring “disembeddedness” in US trade policy-making. To do so, it examines US digital trade policy and its mixed social record by comparing two issues: labor rights and data privacy. This article builds upon recent scholarship on deliberative forms of exclusion in trade policy-making to track the hidden dynamics of “non-decision-making.” It demonstrates that discursive, institutional, inter-scalar, and countermobilizing processes have restricted the terms of political participation and perpetuated a disconnect between digital trade and labor rights, by contrast with the growing trade linkages with data privacy. Keywords: data privacy; digital labor; digital platforms; digital trade policy; gig economy; labor standards; trade linkages; US trade policy; workers’ rights Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:249-260 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Populist Backlash and Trade Agreements in North America: The Prospects for Progressive Trade File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6078 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6078 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 237-248 Author-Name: Robert G. Finbow Author-Workplace-Name: Eric Dennis Memorial Chair of Government and Politics, Dalhousie University, Canada Abstract: Populist rejection of the embedded liberal international order is evident in many Western democracies. This is partly attributable to the architects of this system, who over-promised widespread benefits while ignoring warnings from labour and fair-trade advocates about risks to economic security from transnational economic competition. This article contrasts Canadian and American conservative populist positions on free trade. Globalisation and free trade without consideration for fair trade weakened the embedded liberal compromise and undermined the Keynesian welfare state model which sustained it. While regional free trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement have had marginal negative effects, they became convenient scapegoats in a strategy of “othering” adopted by Trump and other populists. Populism arose in part in response to middle- and working-class decline (alongside cultural changes and revitalised nativism), which eroded support for embedded liberalism. The heretofore pro-trade GOP followed Trump to a more protectionist and bilateral model to press for “America first,” tinged by nativist othering towards Mexico and China. This diverged from Canadian right-populist leaders, whose rhetoric generally supports freer trade despite scepticism among some supporters. Asymmetrical circumstances of the US as a global economic hegemon vs. Canada as trade-dependent middle power limits the feasibility of a protectionist, “Canada first” position while particularities of political and electoral systems create more room for nativism in the US. Polling results indicate support for free trade in both nations, with a priority for labour and social protections, which provides the potential for further engagement in progressive trade liberalisation. Hence a significant percentage of the population supports “fair-trade” approaches, not protectionism. However, many conservative politicians eschew fair-trade positions and endorse anti-labour policies. Despite gains such as the labour provisions in the Canada–US–Mexico Agreement, a right-populist alliance with fair-trade advocates and labour unions is unsustainable and would entail compromises like climate denial, anti-immigrant, and anti-equity approaches which hinder the pursuit of progressive multilateral trading regimes. Keywords: Canada–US–Mexico Agreement; globalisation; North America; populism; protectionism; trade agreements Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:237-248 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Multisided Threat to Free Trade: Protectionism and Fair Trade During Increasing Populism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6082 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6082 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 223-236 Author-Name: Sean D. Ehrlich Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Florida State University, USA Author-Name: Christopher Gahagan Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Florida State University, USA Abstract: The standard embedded liberalism argument for increasing free trade after World War II is that countries have compensated those hurt by trade and, therefore, have reduced opposition to free trade policies. This argument relies on opposition to trade being motivated by personal economic effects of trade; however, recent work has increasingly found other motivations for protectionism, calling into question the sustainability of embedded liberalism. This article argues that this threat to embedded liberalism will grow worse as populism increases, which leads to both more nationalistic and more economic opposition to trade, which is only partially offset by other non-economic opposition (most notably, fair trade) decreasing. This article offers a conceptual framework for the different types of opposition to trade and how increasing populism influences its composition. The framework is supported by descriptive statistics of public opinion on trade policy in the US over the past two decades, encompassing trade opinions before and during the global financial crisis, as well as during the rise of global populist movements starting around 2016. We conclude the article with policy implications regarding the multi-sided threat to free trade and how policymakers can confront the evolving challenges to embedded liberalism. Keywords: embedded liberalism; fair trade; free trade; populism; protectionism; trade policy preferences Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:223-236 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Trade Policy and Ecological Transition File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6174 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6174 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 214-222 Author-Name: Mathieu Dufour Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada Abstract: While the global pandemic has taken the front stage since the spring of 2020, environmental issues remain as pressing as ever. In this article, I question whether the current liberalized trade and investment regime is consistent with the possibility of an ecological transition and argue that it is not. The organization of a large part of economic activity on a world scale by multinational corporations, with profitability imperatives and relatively short planning horizons, is inherently conducive to an intensification of resource extraction and commodity production. A liberal trade and investment regime gives free rein to these dynamics, which should instead be curtailed in order to achieve the necessary adjustments to sustainable living. As such, this article will explore ways in which the trade and investment regime could be subordinated to ecological and social concerns and contribute to, rather than hinder, an ecological transition. Keywords: ecological transition; environment; financial liberalization; trade policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:214-222 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: International Investment Law in the Shadow of Populism: Between Redomestication and Liberalism Re‐Embedded File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6220 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6220 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 203-213 Author-Name: Álvaro Santos Author-Workplace-Name: Georgetown University Law Center, Georgetown University, USA Abstract: The international investment regime is in crisis, nowhere more so than in regard to the investor–state dispute settlement system. While several developing countries have been critical of the system for some time, rich countries like the US and EU states—once the principal promoters of this regime—are now acknowledging problems and advancing reforms. This change of position has been fueled by the mobilization of civil society and the emergence of domestic populist movements on both the right and the left, reflecting widespread discontent with the past three decades of neoliberal globalization and its effects on job losses, lower wages, and increasing inequality. This article argues that this shift has opened up a unique opportunity for developing countries that want reform, as there is less pressure (real or imagined) from rich countries to continue with an old model that no longer serves. Two paths present a possible way forward: (a) Participating countries can disengage from investor–state dispute settlement and opt for the redomestication of international investment law, rekindling the Calvo doctrine, or (b) they can follow John G. Ruggie’s “embedded liberalism” to re-embed the international investment regime with values and social objectives that are now deemed politically indispensable. This article explores each of these paths, with a particular focus on Latin America. It argues that although populism creates pressures to change or abandon the regime, in developing countries it also generates constraints that may prolong the status quo. Keywords: Calvo doctrine; embedded liberalism; foreign direct investment; ISDS reform; international investment law; Latin America; neoliberalism; populism; redomestication Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:203-213 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Class Struggle and International Economic Institutions: The Origins of the GATT and “Embedded Liberalism” File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5958 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.5958 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 193-202 Author-Name: Rémi Bachand Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Legal Studies, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada Abstract: If one wants to get a grasp on the international institutional arrangement of what J. G. Ruggie called “embedded liberalism,” which included the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), one must first carefully examine the conditions that made the regime of accumulation called Fordism possible. More precisely, it is essential to grasp how the particular evolution of class struggle in the US strongly influenced the organization of capitalism in this country, and subsequently the international institutions at the core of the embedded liberalism. Simply put, the thesis defended in this article is that the evolution of class struggle in the US in the 1930s and the following decades has been the main influence in the shaping of Fordism and an undervalued factor in the creation of the GATT. The GATT, in other words, is an agreement that strongly corresponds to the necessity of the management of the class struggle associated with Fordism. Keywords: class struggle; Fordism; GATT; regime of accumulation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:193-202 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Populism, Globalization, and the Prospects for Restoring the WTO File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6086 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6086 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 181-192 Author-Name: Kent Jones Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Babson College, USA Abstract: This article sets out to identify a constructionist framework for a new and expanded “embedded liberalism” and WTO reforms in the global trading system. Globalization and populism led the Trump administration to attack the WTO system by introducing unilateral protectionist measures and undermining its rules and norms. US populist trade policies have persisted under President Biden. Necessary steps to restore the WTO system include (a) domestic reforms by WTO members to improve economic adjustment, labor mobility, and social safety nets; (b) WTO reforms to allow for additional domestic policy space, new negotiated rules to address contentious issues, and a relaxation of the consensus rule; and (c) US restoration of its commitment to multilateral trade rules. Renewed global leadership will be required to pursue these steps. If the current WTO agreement proves to be incapable of resolving these issues, countries will turn increasingly to the alternative of regional trade agreements, which may be able to re-create the conditions for a return to a rules-based global trading system. Yet populism, anti-globalization pressures, and geopolitical tensions present the danger of a continued unwillingness to cooperate among major countries. Keywords: embedded liberalism; global institutions; globalization; populism; trade policy; WTO Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:181-192 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Re‐Embedding Trade in the Shadow of Populism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6930 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6930 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 177-180 Author-Name: Kevin Kolben Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Supply Chain Management, Rutgers Business School, USA Author-Name: Michèle Rioux Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada Abstract: In the last 75 years of international economic cooperation, we have witnessed tremendous changes. The global trade and investment regime is under pressure and undergoing a significant transformation. Supply chains are being restructured, new trade blocks are forming based on strategic and political considerations, support for trade among citizens is weak and inconsistent, and populist opposition to the global economic and political order is ascendant. In this time of uncertainty about the future of the world order, the articles for this thematic issue address how and if the global trade and investment regime can be re-embedded into society. Keywords: embedded liberalism; labor rights; populism; trade; trade adjustment Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:177-180 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Women Leading the Opposition: Gender and Rhetoric in the European Parliament File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6172 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6172 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 164-176 Author-Name: Henriette Müller Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Arts & Humanities, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Author-Name: Pamela Pansardi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Pavia, Italy Abstract: The European Parliament (EP) is an intriguing arena to study the nexus between gender, speech-making, and leadership performance, as it simultaneously challenges and confirms gender-based hierarchies in legislative contexts. While the EP has a higher level of women’s representation than national parliaments, women’s access to top-level positions nonetheless remains limited. Yet the EP is a special case of a legislature. Lacking a right of initiative, it often acts collectively as an inter-institutional opposition to the EU core institutions. In this article, through a software-assisted analysis of EP debates following the president’s State of the Union Address, we investigate party group leaders’ evaluations of the Commission’s proposals and their charismatic rhetoric from a gender angle. Focusing on the three most recent legislatures (2009–2021), our analysis shows that while collective inter-institutional opposition is present in the EP, women leaders generally show higher levels of rhetorical skillfulness and voice either approval or opposition toward the Commission more emphatically than their male counterparts. Keywords: charismatic rhetoric; European Parliament; gender; inter‐institutional opposition; party group leaders; political speeches; women’s leadership performance Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:164-176 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Instrumentalization of Women Opposition Leaders for Authoritarian Regime Entrenchment: The Case of Uganda File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6138 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6138 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 152-163 Author-Name: Aili Mari Tripp Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin‐Madison, USA Abstract: Electoral authoritarian regimes have sought to use a variety of tactics to remain in power even as they have opened themselves up to competition through multiparty elections. These tactics have included an array of measures targeting opposition women. They became significant in Africa after the 1990s as most countries adopted multiparty systems and ruling parties needed to maintain vote share. Ruling parties in African authoritarian countries strengthened their patronage networks by promoting women as leaders. At the same time, women in opposition parties have fared poorly compared to women in ruling parties and male opposition candidates. This has been the case even where one finds the special dispensation of a gender quota in the form of reserved seats. This article looks at how Uganda’s ruling party has used various tactics to advance women leaders, responding to pressures from both the women’s movement and international actors while seeking to ensure its continued dominance. It reveals an essential feature of authoritarianism in Africa today, namely the instrumental use of women leaders to entrench the ruling party in power. Keywords: authoritarianism; autocracy; parties; quotas; Uganda; women opposition leaders Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:152-163 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Political Pathways and Performance of Women Opposition Leaders in Indonesia and South Korea File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6151 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6151 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 141-151 Author-Name: Nankyung Choi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: While some world regions have seen women opposition leaders with no ties to political families rise to national leadership, in East Asia, women opposition leaders who ascend to national executive positions have been largely limited to the wives, daughters, or sisters of prominent male politicians. Locally, however, there have been some broadening and diversification of women who seek and win executive office through oppositional politics. Given the small number of women opposition leaders who have gained leadership positions in the government, this article develops an interpretive study of the relationship between becoming “critical actors” and doing “critical acts” as women opposition leaders. Using four illustrative cases of women who have pursued executive power through oppositional politics, this article questions whether and how the variation in women’s pathways affects their exercise of power in Indonesia and South Korea, two young though consolidating democracies in East Asia. Drawing on the biographies and policies of two presidents (Megawati Soekarnoputri and Park Geun-hye) and two mayors (Tri Rismaharini and Kim Soo-young) it shows that local women opposition leaders use their executive leadership to initiate and implement public policies, unlike their national counterparts whose pathways and performance are intertwined with family background. By doing so, the article sheds light on the complex nexus between political pathways and performance of women opposition leaders. Keywords: Indonesia; political pathways; political performance; South Korea; substantive representation; women opposition leader Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:141-151 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Gender and Opposition Leadership in the Pacific Islands File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6065 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6065 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 130-140 Author-Name: Kerryn Baker Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University, Australia Author-Name: Jack Corbett Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton, UK Abstract: Parliaments in the Pacific Islands are among the most male-dominated in the world. Yet despite the odds, there is a cohort of women who have been elected and won senior roles. This article adds to an emerging literature that examines the gendered pathways to political influence in the region by focusing on the hitherto overlooked role of the opposition leader. It uses a biographical approach to consider the pathways in and through this role by four women opposition leaders: Fiame Naomi Mata’afa (Samoa), Hilda Heine (Marshall Islands), Dame Carol Kidu (Papua New Guinea), and Ro Teimumu Kepa (Fiji). We parse out factors that explain the success of these leaders while also identifying barriers that have prevented their emergence in other Pacific states. We identify two main ways in which women politicians have used the position of leader of the opposition: first, the conventional understanding of the role as a path to power; and second, the less well-understood role of defending and protecting democratic norms and institutions. The latter can be interpreted as a version of the “glass cliff” phenomenon where women leaders assume key positions in times of crisis. Our findings thus highlight that while in the Pacific the role of leader of the opposition can be a path to power, the relatively few women leaders who have taken on this role have used it in diverse and varied ways. Keywords: gender; glass cliff; leader of the opposition; Pacific Islands; political parties Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:130-140 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The “Accidental Candidate” Versus Europe’s Longest Dictator: Belarus’s Unfinished Revolution for Women File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6167 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6167 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 119-129 Author-Name: Farida Jalalzai Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Virginia Tech, USA Author-Name: Steve Jurek Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, SUNY Brockport, USA Abstract: Women in Central and Eastern Europe have made gains as presidents and prime ministers. A notable exception to this is Belarus, where President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the longest dictator in Europe, has tightly clung to power since 1994. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya surprised many when she threw her hat in the ring for the 2020 presidential election. This article asks how Tsikhanouskaya arose as the 2020 opposition candidate and how gender shaped the campaign. Gender played a central role in her being able to stand in the election. Her husband had been a leading presidential candidate but was imprisoned by the regime. Like women who rose to executive leadership positions, Tsikhanouskaya ran in her husband’s place. Lukashenka permitted her candidacy because he did not see her as a political threat. Lukashenka regularly diminished her candidacy using sexist rhetoric. Tsikhanouskaya’s own campaign highlighted more traditionally feminine traits such as being a nurturer, unifier, and non-power seeking, and only being in politics by chance. Referring to herself as an “accidental candidate,” she made it clear that she sought to unify the Belarussian people against the dictatorship and would step aside after this was accomplished. As de facto opposition leader, she continues to highlight these more feminine qualities and craft a less threatening image. Keywords: Belarus; Central and Eastern Europe; dictatorships; democracy; gender studies; revolution; women in politics Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:119-129 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From Opposition Leader to Prime Minister: Giorgia Meloni and Women’s Issues in the Italian Radical Right File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6042 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6042 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 108-118 Author-Name: Elisabetta De Giorgi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy Author-Name: Alice Cavalieri Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy / Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin, Italy Author-Name: Francesca Feo Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political and Social Science, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy Abstract: Under the motto “God, homeland, and family”—but also by stressing one further important marker of social identity, i.e., gender—Italian radical right party leader Giorgia Meloni multiplied her party seats in parliament from 2013 onwards. After the 2022 elections, she became the first woman prime minister in Italy. Starting from an overview of the figure of Giorgia Meloni as a radical right woman leader, we explore her and her party’s position on women-related issues and their relevance while exploring, in opposition, two different contexts: representative institutions and social media. To do that, we draw on parliamentary data—bills and parliamentary questions introduced in parliament by Fratelli d’Italia—and on Meloni’s public discourse—examined in an analysis of all the tweets posted by her official Twitter account, between 2013 and 2021. As expected, a low saliency of women’s issues appears in all the types of data examined, although some of them are more exposed to the shift in attention caused by the rise of related trend topics. Both Meloni and her party are strong supporters of the “natural family” and make use of women’s issues in claiming femonationalist arguments, especially on social media. However, Meloni and her party cannot be considered as fully “neo-traditional,” as are other similar parties in Europe, but rather as a combination of “neo-traditional” and “modern-traditional.” Keywords: gender; Giorgia Meloni; Italy; opposition; parliament; radical right; Twitter; women Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:108-118 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Gender and Strategic Opposition Behavior: Patterns of Parliamentary Oversight in Belgium File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6135 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6135 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 097-107 Author-Name: Benjamin de Vet Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Robin Devroe Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Ghent University, Belgium Abstract: Studies on strategic parliamentary opposition often focus on broader behavioral patterns or party‐level variation. This article analyzes differences at the individual level, more notably between male and female opposition members of parliament. Using rational‐choice perspectives of opposition activity and theories of gendered political behavior, we hypothesize that female opposition members focus less on ideological conflicts (with or between coalition parties) and more on their party’s core issues. Furthermore, we expect them to more frequently target female ministers, in part because of the nature of their respective portfolios. Our analysis of all parliamentary questions tabled by opposition members in the Belgian Federal Parliament between 2007 and 2019 (N = 48,735) suggests that female members of parliament seem more likely to focus on issues that are salient to their party and less on conflictual matters between coalition partners. These results provide new empirical insights into strategic opposition behavior and gendered differences in the legislature. Keywords: Belgium; gender; opposition; parliamentary behavior; parliamentary questions Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:097-107 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Parliamentary Women Opposition Leaders: A Comparative Assessment Across 28 OECD Countries File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6176 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6176 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 085-96 Author-Name: Sarah C. Dingler Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Innsbruck, Austria Author-Name: Ludger Helms Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Innsbruck, Austria Abstract: While women have increasingly gained access to the position of opposition leader, we still know very little about their pathways to that office. Therefore, this article seeks to uncover the dynamics and patterns that distinguish the ascendency of women politicians to the office of opposition leader from a comparative perspective. In this article, opposition leaders are understood as the parliamentary party group leaders of the largest non-governing party in a given legislative assembly, which marks the closest equivalent to the Westminster understanding of leaders of the opposition that continues to dominate international notions of opposition leaders and oppositional leadership in parliamentary democracies. We draw on data from opposition leaders in 28 parliamentary democracies between 1996–2020 to identify opportunity structures that allow women opposition leaders to emerge across countries. In addition, we test how factors on the individual level (e.g., previous experience in party and parliament as well as in government) and at the party level (e.g., ideology) affect the likelihood that a parliamentary opposition leader is a woman. Our analyses demonstrate that the share of women in parliament significantly increases the likelihood that at least one of the parliamentary opposition leaders of the past 25 years was a woman. Moreover, opposition leaders in leftist parties are more likely to be women than their more rightist counterparts. Surprisingly, and contrary to our expectations, previous political experience does not shape the probability of women becoming opposition leaders. Thus, overall, the institutional and ideological contexts of selecting parliamentary opposition leaders seem to matter more than the experience and qualifications of individual candidates. Keywords: career paths; gender; opposition leaders; parliaments; parties; women leaders Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:085-96 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Women Opposition Leaders: Conceptual Issues and Empirical Agendas File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6695 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6695 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 080-84 Author-Name: Sarah C. Dingler Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Innsbruck, Austria Author-Name: Ludger Helms Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Innsbruck, Austria Author-Name: Henriette Müller Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Arts & Humanities, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Abstract: This thematic issue provides the first comprehensive overview of women opposition leaders and their performance. Setting the stage for a new research agenda, this editorial piece integrates theoretical and empirical insights at the intersection of three distinct research areas: political opposition, political leadership, and gender and politics. It discusses various notions of opposition leaders and identifies three main lines of inquiry: (a) career pathways and trajectories, (b) patterns of selection and de-selection, and (c) the actual and perceived performance of women’s oppositional leadership. Applying a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, this collection of original articles captures the diversity of women opposition leaders, their career trajectories, and their exercise of leadership across different political regimes and world regions. Keywords: autocracy; democracy; gender; leadership performance; opposition leaders; parliaments; political opposition; regime type; Westminster model; women Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:080-84 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Multilevel Venue Shopping Amid Democratic Backsliding in New European Union Member States File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5882 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.5882 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 65-79 Author-Name: Rafael Labanino Author-Workplace-Name: University of Konstanz Author-Name: Michael Dobbins Author-Workplace-Name: University of Konstanz Abstract: Recently, various Central and Eastern European countries have experienced a regression of democratic quality, often resulting in the emergence of competitive (semi‐)authoritarian regimes with an illiberal governing ideology. This has often been accompanied by a closing political space for civil society groups. Based on a survey of more than 400 Polish, Hungarian, Czech, and Slovenian interest organizations, we explore, in the context of backsliding, the conditions under which organized interests shift their lobbying activities to alternative, i.e., EU or regional levels. Our statistical analyses indicate that it is rather exclusive policy‐making in general than a lack of individual group access to domestic policy networks that motivate organizations to engage in multilevel lobbying. However, it appears that organizational self‐empowerment and inter‐group cooperation are the “name of the game.” Even under the adverse conditions of democratic backsliding, organizations that are accumulating expertise, professionalizing their operations, and cooperating with other organizations not only can sustain access to (illiberal) national governments but also branch out their operations to the European and regional levels. Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe; democratic backsliding; European Union; multilevel lobbying; organized interests; post‐communism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:65-79 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Representative Potential of Interest Groups: Internal Voice in Post-Communist and Western European Countries File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5899 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.5899 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 50-64 Author-Name: Joost Berkhout Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Jan Beyers Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Belgium Author-Name: Marcel Hanegraaff Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Why do some interest group systems provide group members with more elaborate voice opportunities than other systems? We argue that evaluating membership voice is important for understanding the representative potential of interest group systems. An adequate understanding of “voice” forms the basis of “context”-embedded assessments of benchmarks such as interest group bias, interest group representational distortion, and interest group-driven policy overload. We examine two competing hypotheses on the differences in internal voice in Eastern and Western Europe. Primarily, case-specific arguments lead us to expect a weaker internal voice in post-communist Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe. Conversely, some theoretical approaches, such as population ecological organisational theory, lead us to expect a relatively weak membership voice in the organisationally saturated Western European systems. We assess these two hypotheses on the basis of an international survey of interest group leaders and observe, in line with the population ecological hypothesis, that members of Western European interest groups, compared to those in post-communist countries, are perceived as having less influential voices in internal decisions on policy positions. We conclude, neither optimistically nor pessimistically, that there is a meaningful representative potential of interest group systems supporting democratic societies, also, or even especially, in the post-communist countries studied. Keywords: democratic backsliding; Eastern Europe; interest groups; post-communist countries; representation; Western Europe Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:50-64 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Interest Group Strategic Responses to Democratic Backsliding File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5863 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.5863 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 39-49 Author-Name: Danica Fink-Hafner Author-Workplace-Name: University of Ljubljana Author-Name: Sara Bauman Author-Workplace-Name: University of Ljubljana Abstract: In this article, we offer insights into the plurality of interest groups’ strategic responses to the socially, politically, and economically transformative phenomenon of democratic backsliding. For the purpose of the article, the term “ideational plurality” has been coined to refer to a plurality of interest groups’ ideas leading their activities in general and their choice of strategies concerning the government in particular (attitudinal and behavioural aspects). Two policy fields and two types of interest groups engaged in an institutionalised social partnership—advocacy NGOs (operating in the environmental policy field) and economic groups (trade unions)—are studied comparatively in Slovenia using a mixed‐methods approach. The key findings are that strategic responses to democratic backsliding vary between environmental NGOs and trade unions, as do their ideational plurality, and that environmental NGOs’ ideational plurality damages their potential to struggle against democratic backsliding. In contrast, trade unions’ ideational homogeneity enables them to jointly struggle against governmental destruction of one significant segment of democratic order (institutions of social partnership) without demanding that the government step down for misusing the Covid‐19 pandemic to establish a system of governance that resonates with Viktor Orbán’s ideas of illiberal democracy. Keywords: Covid‐19; democratic backsliding; environment; interest group strategies; NGOs; Slovenia; social partnership; trade unions Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:39-49 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Challenges Facing Organised Interests Under a Populist Right-Wing Government in Slovenia File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5859 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.5859 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 28-38 Author-Name: Meta Novak Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Author-Name: Damjan Lajh Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Abstract: The development of organised interests (OIs) during the socialist period in Central and Eastern Europe was considerably limited, if not frozen. This was also somewhat the case in Slovenia, where it was mainly OIs close to the government that could operate. In the early 1990s, the interest group system in the now independent country was already recognised as vibrant with the number of OIs growing each year ever since. Yet, Europeanisation processes in particular have led to additional opportunity structures being created for OIs to become involved in policymaking. The biggest obstacle to the development of such interests has become the low level of its professionalisation, given that most are run voluntarily. Around the end of 2020, the political environment for the activities of OIs remained quite favourable, with a few isolated drops in their public image and political attacks on mostly environmental organisations. The change in government in March 2020 saw the backsliding in democracy become more apparent. This included liberal OIs being publicly discredited, the obstruction of largely environmental OIs, and attacks on the media. In this article, we examine how democratic backsliding in Slovenia has affected the articulation, representation, and intermediation of interests. To unravel this puzzle, we analyse the changing conditions for OIs’ operations between March 2020 and April 2022 as introduced by the populist right-wing Slovenian government to help better understand the democratic backsliding seen in the country. Keywords: democratic backsliding; organised interests; populist right-wing government; Slovenia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:28-38 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From Exclusion to Co-Optation: Political Opportunity Structures and Civil Society Responses in De-Democratising Hungary File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5883 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.5883 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 16-27 Author-Name: Márton Gerő Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary Author-Name: Anna Fejős Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary Author-Name: Szabina Kerényi Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary Author-Name: Dorottya Szikra Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary / Central European University, Democracy Institute, Hungary Abstract: While it is well-known that democratic backsliding imposes a variety of challenges on civil society organisations, it is often assumed that it represses civil society. However, a closer look at the impact of democratic backsliding on civil society organisations reveals that even in countries where democratic backsliding is fairly advanced, the relationship between civil society and the state is more complex. Close cooperation and partnership between civil society organisations and the state are scarce in backsliding countries; the relationship between civil society organisations and the state might, however, range from hostility to varying forms and degrees of co-optation. Based on interviews with representatives of civil society organisations and the examination of the sector-specific social and political environment, we aim to explore the forms and factors that shape the relationship between civil society organisations and the state in Hungary. More specifically, we analyse the impact of the changing political opportunity structures on three important sectors of civil society organisations: human rights organisations, environmental organisations, and women’s organisations. We argue that, to seize control over civil society the government applies sector-specific strategies, ranging from exclusion to co-optation. State strategies, in turn, spark different responses from civil society organisations. Keywords: civil society; environmental policy; gender; human rights; Hungary; hybrid regimes; political opportunity structure Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:16-27 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Diversity of Actors in Reform Backsliding and Its Containment in the Ukrainian Hybrid Regime File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5862 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.5862 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-15 Author-Name: Michael Martin Richter Author-Workplace-Name: Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen, Germany / Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Germany Abstract: Numerous studies on democratic backsliding mostly focus on the state executive as a driving force. In contrast, the analysis presented here highlights the role of vested interests as the main actors behind backsliding processes in hybrid regimes. In a focused case study of anti‐corruption reforms in Ukraine, this contribution analyses the initiation of backsliding by these actors through their influence on nominally independent branches of power as well as the subtle takeover of the legislative repair process that followed. The case study is based on original semi‐structured expert interviews and document analysis. The main argument is that the distinct role played by the state executive also substantially changes the interaction between the actors involved. For the case of Ukraine, the study shows that the leverage of Western organisations in conjunction with the expertise and swift reaction of Ukrainian civil society organisations constitute a necessary precondition for the containment of backsliding attempts. Keywords: backsliding; civil society; democracy promotion; European Union; hybrid regimes; International Monetary Fund; Ukraine; vested interests; Western donors Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:5-15 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Democratic Backsliding and Organized Interests in Central and Eastern Europe: An Introduction File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6532 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v11i1.6532 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 11 Year: 2023 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-4 Author-Name: Rafael Pablo Labanino Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz Author-Name: Michael Dobbins Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz Abstract: This editorial introduces readers to the thematic issue on organized interests in the context of democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe. Keywords: civil society; democratic backsliding; organized interests; post‐communism; social movements Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:1-4