Stella Ladi

The Role of Experts in the Reform Process in Greece

This article explores the role of expertise in the reform process in Greece by utilising the advocacy coalition framework. Knowledge, power and policy reform are discussed by comparing three frameworks that place knowledge in the centre of the analysis: advocacy coalitions, epistemic communities and policy transfer networks. The theoretical claims made in this paper are illustrated through a discussion of the 2001 constitutional reform and in particular the reform of article 24 on the environment and article 102 on decentralisation of public administration and the strengthening of regional governance. It is argued that the advocacy coalition is a useful framework for studying the role of experts in policy reform, although the framework could be strengthened if more emphasis was placed on political, economic and social interests and the way they form belief systems. In particular, regarding Greece it is claimed that the role of experts in policy reform has increased as part of a general move towards the modernisation of public administration in Greece.

The Politics of Austerity and Public Policy Reform in the EU

The European Union (EU) is at a critical juncture that will either trigger further integration or reinforce a mode of intergovernmental cooperation. The spread of market pressure to a growing number of states demonstrates that the crisis needs to be dealt with at the European and not just the national level. Up to now the ‘politics of extreme austerity’ has been the mainstream recipe promoted to and adopted by member states. The measures are tougher in those countries where there has been external financial assistance (i.e. Greece, Portugal and Ireland) but the rest of Europe is following suit (e.g. Italy and the UK). This introduction outlines the key directions of EU reforms to put into context the more specific cases discussed elsewhere in this symposium. The strengths and weaknesses of the theoretical frameworks employed in the articles are discussed to demonstrate the lessons that the crisis offers for our well-established public policy models and to highlight avenues for further research. Two main arguments are advanced: first, the crisis calls for an interdisciplinary approach to comprehend its full extent and deal with it efficiently; and second, the current political trajectory of the EU calls for urgent changes to strengthen its cohesion and long-term viability.

Globalisation and/or Europeanisation? The Case of Flexicurity

The relationship between globalisation and Europeanisation is conventionally studied by focusing on the domestic level. In this article we explore this relationship at the international level instead. We examine the way in which the two phenomena in the form of the ILO and the EU relate to one another. Adopting a discursive institutionalist approach and focusing on flexicurity, we investigate whether, how and under what conditions the discourse on flexicurity provides a point of convergence or divergence between globalisation and Europeanisation. Our empirical data reveals attempts by the European Commission to use globalisation as a legitimating device for a market-accommodating programme for labour market reform. The ILO remains more sceptical, both about the overall effects of globalisation and the more concrete uses of flexicurity. Meanwhile, the concept of flexicurity is subject to change and rearticulation in line with the evolving policy agenda endorsed by the Commission and/or the member states. The relationship between Europe and globalisation is thus far from neutral. ‘Europe’ is active in shaping globalisation; translated into the work undertaken here, Europeanisation could be conceived as a facet of globalisation rather than as a bulwark to it, or merely as a process running parallel to it.

Europeanisation and Environmental Policy Change

Abstract Environmental policy is one of the most regulated and one of the most Europeanised policy areas. This article analyses the concept of Europeanisation, discusses its mechanisms, the mediating factors that lead to change and its possible outcomes. It explores the relationship of specific mechanisms and mediating factors to policy convergence, inertia and divergence. The particularities of environmental policy are presented and a distinction between substantive and procedural policies is made. It is argued that a tendency to convergence of national environmental policies that goes beyond the borders of the EU and further than the “hard” mechanisms of Europeanisation can be observed.

Globalization and Europeanization: Analysing Change

The main motivation for exploring the relationship between globalization and Europeanization is the understanding of the importance of exogenous factors for policy change at the domestic level. Can we distinguish the impact of Europeanization to that of globalization? What is the relationship between globalization and Europeanization and what can we learn about the impact of the two phenomena upon political institutions, public policies, identities and values of EU member-states? Can we distinguish the traces of globalization to those of Europeanization upon the domestic level? The paper draws upon International Relations and International Political Economy theories of globalization as well as upon the Europeanization literature. Both phenomena are multi-dimensional and in order to assess their impact and their relationship three dimensions are explored: political institutions, public policies and values and identities. It is concluded that the two phenomena are interwoven and that there is no antithetical relationship between them. Their core is similar, based on the values of neo-liberalism, representative democracy and open market economy.

‘Fast-Forward’ Europeanization: Welfare State Reform in Light of the Eurozone Crisis

The Eurozone crisis and the indecision of the EU leaders to move towards a concrete and long-lasting solution have raised once more the discussion about the future of the European project. Will the EU manage to come out of the crisis stronger, or will the Eurozone collapse and with it the EU will be directed to an intergovernmental phase? Although it is difficult to predict the answer to this question, what can be said is that the way we study and analyse the EU has already been affected. In the last 15 years, the focus of the analysis has shifted to Europeanization and to the way the EU has been changing the polity, policy and politics of the member states (e.g. Ladrech, 2010; Featherstone and Radaelli, 2003). Policy convergence, divergence and inertia (or, in other terms, policy transformation, adjustment and continuity) have been observed in a variety of cases, and a lot of emphasis has been placed on the domestic mediating factors as explanatory factors for the outcome of Europeanization (see Graziano, 2011; Ladi, 2011). In this chapter, we argue that in order to better understand Europeanization and the way it affects member states, we need to focus more on the changing face of Europeanization itself. The current economic crisis reveals that when member states have not been converging, in presence of increasing, multiple EU-led policy constraints, Europeanization becomes more persistent. This is what we call ‘fast-forward’ Europeanization.

Evidence-Based Policy Making in Greece

This chapter analyses the processes of policy-making in Greece. The focus is on the use of research evidence by policy-makers and politicians and the role of experts in policy-making. One of the main criticisms of public administration in Greece is the lack of implementation of laws and governmental decisions. This serious gap between policy and its implementation is apparent in all European Commission reviews relating to the implementation of the prerequisites of the Memoranda agreement between Greece and its lenders. One of the solutions that governments, such as that of the UK, have adopted for improving policy decisions and their implementation is resorting to evidence-based policy. Such a turn, however, is not without problems or criticisms. A discussion about the use of experts in policy-making has been present in Greece for the last decade and has become even more prominent during the ‘technocratic’ government led by Papadimos. This chapter initially introduces us to policy-making in Greece and then turns to an evaluation of the risks and potentials of adopting an evidence-based policy-making style.

Brazilian think tanks and the rise of austerity discourse

Abstract This article discusses the role of think tanks in the production of ideas guiding recent change in Brazil’s economic policy. It claims that think tanks are significant policy-making agents preparing the society for change – via their communicative discourse – but also attempting to influence the interaction between political elites – via their coordinative discourse. The polarization of think tanks’ communicative discourse in regard to austerity during two critical junctures for Brazil is analysed. Discursive institutionalism is applied in order to interpret data from four Brazilian think tanks: the Institute of Applied Economic Research, the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies, the Fernand Braudel Institute and the Brazilian Institute of Economy. These think tanks have very different organizational and ideological characteristics but a polarization of the discussion around austerity can be observed in the discourse of all four of them. The scale ranges from an active defence of the Brazilian development model to a full-scale endorsement of austerity.

The Changing Nature of European Governance and the Dynamics of Europeanization

The chapter focuses on two important developments in European governance that have been particularly pronounced in the last few years. These are a tendency toward more coercive Europeanization stemming from an increasingly assertive role taken by the European Union institutions, but also occurrences of increased divergence from the EU norms and prescribed models, which could be described as de-Europeanization. It is argued that the two phenomena are interrelated and they need to be explored and theorized further, in order to build a more precise picture of what Europeanization is and how it evolves in time.

Small States in the European Union: Coping with Structural Disadvantages by Diana Panke. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010. 243pp., £55.00, ISBN 978 1 4094 0528 3

pean elections and their campaigns do not necessarily follow the same logic as national ones. The aim of this volume is to test whether theories that have been developed in the national context hold true at the European level. The individual articles are mostly based on longitudinal and cross-national approaches, but also include single-country studies.The data are frequently drawn from content analyses of campaigning material, television spots and newspaper articles in addition to surveys. Hence the book is aimed at anyone interested in (comparative) election research and political communication. Overall, the volume gives a comprehensive account of the 2009 European elections in terms of their historical development, the party and media campaign.While some chapters follow the classical patterns of media analyses (topics, actors, valence, etc.), others provide new insights into EP campaigns in different EU member states. As in many edited volumes, there are cases of repetition, for example when comparing the mediatisation and framing of the election in thirteen member states, this is followed by a similar examination of 27 countries. Even though it is stated that European elections are a hybrid that possesses national and European elements, the starting point of some studies is the ‘second-order elections’ hypothesis. Nevertheless, the book offers new and innovative findings. In particular, the final section puts the previous results into perspective and highlights the importance of European political communication for an active European citizenry and for the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. Political Communication in European Parliamentary Elections demonstrates that European elections provide a unique opportunity for innovative, longitudinal and cross-national research in political communication and is, therefore, highly recommended.