Hans Vollaard

Explaining European Disintegration

While the possibility of European disintegration is prominently on the public agenda, European Union (EU) studies have so far largely neglected the issue. This article looks for a proper theoretical starting point to conceptualize and explain European disintegration. Theories about European integration, but also international politics, comparative federalism, optimum currency areas and imperial decline appear to be problematic bases to this end. Some of these theories suffer from a state bias. Other theories are too narrowly focused to explain the complex process of disintegration. Yet others fail to interconnect coherently the manifold disintegrative factors. A theoretical framework on polity formation developed by Bartolini is the most promising basis from which to examine European disintegration as it avoids the problems just mentioned. It shows that Eurosceptic dissatisfaction mainly induces partial exits within the EU due to the EUs weak lock-in power, its problematic voice structuring and the lack of proper full exit options.

The Logic of Political Territoriality

The creation of an undivided Europe without borders raises questions about the present-day significance of political territoriality in Europe. The article presents a conceptualisation of political territoriality to indicate its significance. Political territoriality is defined here as an active strategy to control by controlling a geographical area. The implications of territorial control are labelled here the logic of territoriality, comprising geographical fixity, impersonality, geographical inclusion/exclusion and centrality. The more salient territorial control is, the more this logic of territoriality leaves its imprint on policies, politics and polities. This variable conceptualisation of political territoriality not only allows for more refined comparisons of time and place in Europe and elsewhere than a rigid Westphalian understanding of territoriality would. It also enables one to determine where and when making the fundamental distinction in the discipline of political science between Comparative Politics and International Relations is justified, providing a common vocabulary for both disciplines in analysing changing political territoriality.

Implementing Social Europe in Times of Crises: Re-Established Boundaries of Welfare?

This volume examines the state of social Europe when European Union principles and policies have to be implemented in the member states while the EU legitimacy crisis and the Great Recession prevail. The volume explores diverse processes, stages and subjects of implementation in a variety of social policies to identify different institutional dynamics and actor behaviours at play. The individual contributions examine the transposition of the patients’ rights directive to the Europeanisation of pension reforms; the role of national parliaments in transposing social Europe; judicial Europeanisation; and the multi-level enforcement of EU decisions. Theoretically, the volume highlights that implementation is often conditioned by domestic politics or comes as a ‘random walk’ due to organisational and cognitive constraints. Empirically, the volume has three main findings. First, the constitutive components of the EU tend to have a contradictory impact on the EU’s social policies and the national welfare systems. Second, crises influence the implementation of social Europe, at times leading to a modification of fundamental principles and content, but not across the board. Third, as a result, there is evidence of differentiated Europeanisation.

Bounded Rationality in Transposition Processes: The Case of the European Patients’ Rights Directive

Studies explaining the timeliness and correctness of the transposition of EU directives into national legislation have provided rather inconclusive findings. They do not offer a clear-cut prediction concerning the transposition of the patients’ rights directive, which is one of the first that concerns the organisation and financing of national healthcare systems. This article applies the perspective of bounded rationality to explain (irregularities in) the timely and correct transposition of EU directives. The cognitive and organisational constraints long posited by the bounded rationality perspective may affect the commonly employed explanatory factors of administrative capacities, misfit and the heterogeneity of preferences among veto players. To prevent retrospective rationalisation of the transposition process, this paper traces this process as it unfolded in Denmark and the Netherlands. As bounded rationality is apparent in the transposition processes in these relatively well-organised countries, future transposition studies should devote greater consideration to the bounded rationality perspective.

Voice and choice by delegation

In many Western countries, options for citizens to influence public services are increased to improve the quality of services and democratize decision making. Possibilities to influence are often cast into Albert Hirschmans taxonomy of exit (choice), voice, and loyalty. In this article we identify delegation as an important addition to this framework. Delegation gives individuals the chance to practice exit/choice or voice without all the hard work that is usually involved in these options. Empirical research shows that not many people use their individual options of exit and voice, which could lead to inequality between users and nonusers. We identify delegation as a possible solution to this problem, using Dutch health care as a case study to explore this option. Notwithstanding various advantages, we show that voice and choice by delegation also entail problems of inequality and representativeness.

The making of a European healthcare union: a federalist perspective

ABSTRACT European Union (EU) involvement in healthcare policies is growing, despite the fact that national governments prefer to keep an almost exclusive say in these policies. This article explains how this shift of authority could happen and explores whether it will lead to a European healthcare union. It argues that federalism offers the most fruitful way to do so because of its sensitivity to the EUs institutional settings and to the territorial dimension of politics. The division of competences and national diversity of healthcare systems have been major obstacles for the formation of a healthcare union. However, the EU obtained a role in healthcare through the impact of non-healthcare legislation, voluntary co-operation, court rulings, governments’ joint-decision traps and fiscal stress of member states. The emerging European healthcare union is a system of co-operative federalism without much cost-sharing. The healthcare unions robustness is limited, also because it does not generate much loyalty towards the EU.

The emerging EU quality of care policy: from sharing information to enforcement.

Despite the fact that Member States and many citizens of the EU like to keep healthcare a foremost national competence and the EU treaties state that Member States remain primarily responsible for the organization and delivery of health care services, the European Union (EU) has expanded its involvement in healthcare policy over the last twenty years. Based on interviews and document and literature analysis we show that the scope of EU involvement has widened from public health and access to care, to quality of care. In this paper we concentrate on the latter. Focusing on the recent EU initiatives regarding the quality systems of the Member States and the quality of services, this paper shows how the depth of EU interference has increased from sharing information to standardization and even to the first signs of enforcement. We argue that at this stage, reflection on the feasibility and desirability of the EUs involvement is clearly needed, also considering the differences in quality of care policies between and within EU Member States. Both arguments in favour and against further EU involvement are discussed in this paper.

Re-emerging Christianity in West European Politics: The Case of the Netherlands

Does Christianity re-emerge in politics even in the most secularized part of the world, Western Europe? In this article, the exemplary case of the Netherlands provides empirical evidence for two mechanisms of resurgent Christianity in party politics. In this way, the article also offers a more precise understanding under what conditions various dimensions of religion become (again) or remain politically significant. The first mechanism has been the incentive of secularization and secularism for remaining Christians to regroup in a so-called creative minority to convey an explicitly faith-based message to a broader public. Modernization has therefore not automatically meant less religion in politics. However, creative minorities remained a relatively minor affair in Dutch party politics, despite the large number of Christian migrants and their descendants. Second, Christian and culturally rightwing, secular parties have increasingly referred to a Judeo-Christian culture to mark the political identities of the European Union and its nations in response to Islams growing visibility. The concept of Judeo-Christian culture foremost functioned as a sacred word to denote the liberal and secular order of the West, reflecting the re-emergence of Christianity as cultural phenomenon rather than faith in West European politics.

Representative Claims in Health Care: Identifying the Variety in Patient Representation

In many countries patient involvement is high on the healthcare policy agenda, which includes patient representation in collective decision-making. Patient organizations are generally considered to be important representatives of patients. Other actors also claim to represent patients in decision-making, such as politicians, healthcare professionals, and client advisory councils. In this paper we take a broad view of patient representation, examining all the actors claiming to represent patients in the Dutch debate on the decentralization of care. We conclude that variety in forms of representation could help do justice to the variety of patient preferences. In addition we conclude that in order to ensure the democratic quality of patient representation, actors making representative claims have to reflect on how their claims relate to each other and how they can ensure authorization and accountability in the representative relationship with those they claim to represent.

Neo-functionalism and European Disintegration

Various types of spillover from one policy area to another are key to the neo-functionalist explanation of regional integration. This spillover also entails shifts in expectations, activities, and even loyalties vis-a-vis a new regional political community in which member states become increasingly locked-in, making disintegration unlikely. Neo-functionalists have tried to account for disintegrative forces in their explanation based on the concept of spillback by referring to a situation in which previous commitments are no longer met or enforced. A list of background variables conducive to integration might also be useful in explaining disintegration, particularly in comparison with other cases of regional integration across the world. However, the interconnection between these time and place-specific variables are unclear. Additionally, both the process and the outcome of disintegration cannot necessarily be written off as integration in reverse.