Alberta Sbragia

Governance, the State, and the Market: What Is Going On?

Analyses of the ‘shrinking state’ tend to focus on the pressures being felt by the welfare state. The ‘state’ is viewed as a provider of social benefits and as redistributing wealth. To the extent these functions are being challenged the state is perceived as being ‘rolled back’ by the forces of the market. Yet the state is also involved in ‘building’ markets. This function, overshadowed in the past, has now become an important state activity. Such activity, however, is carried out by state actors different from those involved in the provision of social benefits and the evolution of the welfare state. Majoritarian institutions are largely responsible for the latter while non-majoritarian institutions oversee theformer. Although the balance of power among different types of state actors has shifted, the power of public authority has not necessarily been ‘rolled back’ by the market.

The EU, the US, and trade policy: competitive interdependence in the management of globalization

Competitive interdependence characterizes the EU–US relationship vis-à-vis third markets. Each defines success in relation to the other while each also views the other as its key geo-economic competitor in the world economy. CI has developed as the EU has attempted to manage globalization in the field of trade policy by focusing on the multilateral level and then by reversing course and privileging the regional, which in turn has expanded the EUs territorial influence. The reversal occurred largely because the Bush Administration in Washington pursued free trade agreements (FTAs) in a process of ‘competitive liberalization’. The US outflanked the EU by negotiating FTAs that favored US firms in third markets. The EU, to protect its own firms, then began to negotiate FTAs itself. Geo-economic competition between the EU and the US is thus key to shaping EU trade policy.

EU Studies and the ‘New Regionalism’: What can be Gained from Dialogue?

Abstract This article explores what can be gained from increased dialogue between European Union studies and ‘new regionalism’ studies within International Relations, focusing on two crucial analytical dimensions: the link between globalisation and regionalism, and the link between regionalism and the state. First, globalisation is a universal process, and it provides the context for regionalism across the globe, which enhances the potential for cross‐fertilisation between EU studies and ‘new regionalism’ studies. Cross‐regional comparison is, however, constrained by the fact that globalisations effects are unevenly spread around the globe. Second, comparing the EU with other forms of regionalism highlights the difficulty faced by scholars when moving across the divide separating advanced industrial states from developing countries/emerging economies. Strong state institutions and structures matter in the shaping of both national and regional governance; so does national wealth. Given the difficulties when trying to work across that divide, a focus on comparative regionalism should be viewed with both excitement and caution. The possibility for dialogue and cross‐fertilisation depends therefore strongly on the compatibility of (meta‐)theoretical perspectives and basic assumptions about states as well as regional institutions.

Borrowing to Build: Private Money and Public Welfare

The process of local government borrowing to finance the capital needs of social services has an impact on both central-local relations and the type of service which can be offered to the citizen-consumer. Based on an examination of these relationships in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, it is postulated that different types of central-local relations are dependent on the nature of relations between central government and the investment community. Further, through use of material from a case study of public housing politics in Italy, it is shown how the investment criteria of the so-called “private” sector are transferred to the operations of the public sector through the mechanism of local borrowing. This transferal affects the manner in which social services are conceived and delivered.

Conclusion to Special Issue on the Institutional Balance and the Future of EU Governance: The Treaty of Nice, Institutional Balance, and Uncertainty

Debates about institution–building within the European Union focus on how national power and transnational representation and accountability should be organized institutionally within the context of regionalism. An “institutional balance” allows the EU to benefit from administrative capacity and the representation of both national executives and national electorates while not being transformed into either a transnational political system or a traditional federation. The Treaty of Nice laid the groundwork for enlargement by re–examining issues of representation that had previously been accepted as givens. In so doing, the member states made clear that the evolution of the EU was going to be subject to uncertainty and institutional fluidity.

Not All Roads Lead to Rome: Local Housing Policy in the Unitary Italian State

Until the establishment of regional governments in the early 1970S, Italy was a formally centralized, unitary state. Both the legal and formal administrative frameworks within which local officials worked were such as to support the prevailing scholarly view that, in such a centralized state, the possibilities for local autonomy and initiative were very limited. The formal role of local governments after the Second World War continued to be that which had been specified by the Fascists in legislation designed to complete the centralization of the Italian state. Such a role left little room for local independence and initiative. Administratively, most decisions had to be approved by officials in Rome. Moreover, the policies and finances of local governments were closely supervised by the Prefects, who served as agents of central government.

An American Perspective on the EU's Constitutional Treaty

This article argues that the American experience can help illuminate some of the tensions surrounding the European Unions embattled Constitutional Treaty. I want to emphasise, however, that I am not trying to make any rigorous comparative statement here. I am not arguing that the United States and the EU are similar. They have developed in very different historical periods: the 13 colonies were certainly not equivalent to the old and well-established nation states which form the EU. Nonetheless, I am saying that some aspects of the American experience may be useful in thinking about the current state of tension which surrounds the process of European integration. In this article, therefore, I shall very schematically contrast the American and the European experience of integration and use that contrast to help illuminate the tensions which are now at work in the EU.

Euro-politics: Institutions and Policymaking in the "New" European Community.@@@The Social Dimension of 1992: Europe Faces a New EC.

Preface An Introduction to the European Community: Its Institutions and Policies The 1992 Initiative: Its Genesis, Scope, and Purpose Europeans at Work: The Current Situation in the Member States The Social Dimension: Its Relationship to the 1992 Initiative The Politics of the Social Dimension What 1992 Means for European Women Industrial Democracy: The Social Charter and the European Company Statute The Overlooked Parts of the Social Dimension: Health and Safety, Atypical Work, and Social Fund Toward a Single Labor Market: The Free Movement of Employees The Meaning of the Social Dimension for the Future of European Integration Appendix Bibliography Index