Lee Miles

Sweden in the European Union: Changing expectations?

Sweden has often been regarded by outside observers as one of the more ‘problematic’ Member States of the European Union a reputation that has been consolidated by regular public opinion surveys suggesting widespread scepticism amongst the public and also borne out by Swedens decision to remain outside the ‘Euro‐zone’. This article outlines the reasons why Sweden has attracted such a reputation. It then challenges such a labelling by examining the prioritising of EU policy issues by the Swedish government over the period since the country joined the Union in January 1995. The author introduces a typology and three scenarios to classify Swedish policy priorities and uses various empirical sources to track their development over four distinct time periods culminating with the Swedish EU Council Presidency in early 2001. It is argued that Sweden has increasingly accepted supranational solutions to European integration questions.

Introduction: Euro‐outsiders and the politics of asymmetry

The opening article to the special issue explores the general conceptual, political and practical challenges confronting the euro‐outsiders — here defined as European Union member states that do not at present participate in the Third Stage of Economic and Monetary Union. The guest editor of the special issue argues that the perspectives of the governments of the euro‐outsiders may be understood as the politics of asymmetry, and introduces five forms of asymmetry as a comparative tool to evaluate the respective euro‐outsiders. The article also sets out prospective strategies that the outsider governments may utilise to help manage their situations outside the euro as well as a number of research themes important to the study of the euro‐outsiders.

Becoming Electronic Parliamentarians? ICT Usage in the Swedish Riksdag

This article, drawing upon a quantitative survey of over 80 parliamentarians, as well as website surveys combined with qualitative interviews, explores the degree of usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by Swedish parliamentarians. It also begins to consider any implications for party organisations and parliamentary authorities. The authors suggest that, by 2005, Swedish MPs were becoming ‘electronic parliamentarians’ and that this, combined with the growing usage of political blogs, places increasing demands upon party organisations and the Riksdag to consider the broader management and accountability issues of greater ICT usage by individual MPs. The authors argue that there is a pressing requirement for further research on these organisational and institutional dimensions by scholars of legislative studies, particularly, given the developments in ICT-advanced political systems, like Sweden.

The United Kingdom: A cautious euro-outsider

The article applies some of the conceptual ideas outlined in the Introduction to this special issue to British perspectives and government policy on the European single currency. The authors argue that the politics of asymmetry offers valuable insights and a valid framework for analysing the approaches of the British political elite towards managing being outside the euro, and the domestic process of keeping open the option of adopting the euro.

Reflections and Perspectives

The article formulates a research agenda for scholars seeking to research EU Council Presidencies from a comparative perspective

Enlargement: From the Perspective of `Fusion'

The article examines the performance of the Swedish 2001 EU Council Presidency in handling the EU enlargement portfolio. The article represents one of the first attempts to further develop fusion techniques to understand aspects of European integration

The 'Fusion' Perspective Revisited

This article provides an assessment of the Danish 2002 EU Council Presidencys handling of the EU enlargement portfolio. The article is innovative in using fusion approaches to enhance the conceptual understanding of the priorities of the Danish government while holding the EU Council Presidency

The fusion approach – applications for understanding local government and European integration

Abstract The article explores the theoretical capabilities of the fusion approach as a conceptual ‘kit’ to explain the ‘bigger picture’ of European integration from a local government perspective. Fusion addresses the rationales and methods facilitating the transfer of policy-making competences to the European level. It understands European integration as a merging of public resources and policy instruments from multiple levels of government, whereby accountability and responsibilities for policy outcomes become blurred. The article argues that the fusion approach is useful to explain the systemic linkages between macro-trajectories and the corresponding change at the local level; the fusion dynamics of the local and European levels in a common policy-cycle; and the attitudes of local actors towards the EU. Although the article concludes that local government is rather modestly ‘fused’ into the EU, fusion approaches allow examining the extent to which the local level has become integrated into the European governance system.

Blaming Active Volcanoes or Active Volcanic Blame? Volcanic Crisis Communication and Blame Management in the Cameroon

This chapter examines the key role of blame management and avoidance in crisis communication with particular reference to developing countries and areas that frequently experience volcanic episodes and disasters. In these contexts, the chapter explores a key paradox prevalent within crisis communication and blame management concepts that has been rarely tested in empirical terms (see De Vries 2004; Brandstrom 2016a). In particular, the chapter examines, what it calls, the ‘paradox of frequency’ where frequency of disasters leads to twin dispositions for crisis framed as either: (i) policy failure (active about volcanic blame on others), where issues of blame for internal incompetency takes centre stage, and blame management becomes a focus of disaster managers, and/or: (ii) as event failure (in this case, the blaming of lack of external capacity on active volcanoes and thereby the blame avoidance of disaster managers). Put simply, the authors investigate whether perceptions of frequency itself is a major determinant shaping the existence, operation, and even perceived success of crisis communication in developing regions, and countries experiencing regular disaster episodes. The authors argue frequency is important in shaping the behaviour of disaster managers and rather ironically as part of crisis communication can shape expectations of community resilience and (non)-compliance. In order to explore the implications of the ‘paradox of frequency’ further, the chapter examines the case of the Cameroon, where volcanic activity and events have been regular, paying particular attention to the major disasters in 1986 (Lake Nyos Disaster - LND) and 1999 (Mount Cameroon volcanic eruption - MCE).

Bridging interdependency? : Nordic ’yes, but ...’ - integration from a historical perspective

Bridging interdependency? : Nordic ’yes, but ...’ - integration from a historical perspective