Sectorialised Policy-Making in the EU: Modes of Governance in Social and Environmental Policy
Holger Bähr and Oliver Treib
NEWGOV Policy Brief no. 07, Winter 2007/2008
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Policy Memorandum on Governing Modes in Social and Environmental Policies
Holger Bähr, Oliver Treib
“Governance” has become one of the fashionable catchwords among both scholars and political practitioners. But what does the concept really mean? Does governance refer to specific institutional forms of decision-making, to particular types of state-society relations, or to certain techniques of achieving policy goals? We argue that governance covers all of these phenomena at the same time. Given the multi-faceted character of the concept, however, it is of utmost importance to clearly distinguish the different dimensions of governance, and the individual modes of governance belonging to any of these dimensions, in order to avoid conceptual and theoretical confusion. In this paper, therefore, we provide an overarching scheme to classify different concepts and modes of governance and discuss how this scheme may help improve our understanding of policy-making at both EU and national levels. Our classification scheme builds on concepts drawn from the study of domestic politics. In the existing literature, governing modes are conceived as coordination and steering both at a general societal level and in specific dimensions of polity, politics, and policy. As far as general governing modes are concerned, the literature frequently refers to the triad of hierarchy, network, and market. Specific governing modes describe certain aspects of the process of policy-making. They are conceived as modes of interaction (polity), interest intermediation (politics), and policy instruments (policy). General governing modes cannot be observed directly but we argue that observable specific governing modes reflect general modes of coordination and steering. In order to illustrate the individual modes of governance and their relevance for EU policy-making, we map the governing modes in two policy areas of the European Union (EU), social policy and environmental policy.
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Governing Modes in Social and Environmental Policies
Holger Bähr, Oliver Treib
There are various concepts of governing modes in the existing literature. In this paper we provide an overarching scheme to classify these concepts and discuss how this scheme may help improve the understanding of policy-making at both the EU level and the national level. Our classification scheme builds on concepts drawn from the study of domestic politics, which also apply to the EU level. In the existing literature, governing modes are conceived as coordination and steering both at a general societal level and in specific dimensions of polity, politics, and policy. As far as general governing modes are concerned, the literature frequently refers to the triad of hierarchy, network, and market. Specific governing modes describe certain aspects of the process of policy-making. They are conceived as modes of interaction (polity), forms of interest intermediation (politics), and types of policy instruments (policy). General governing modes cannot be observed directly but we argue that observable specific governing modes reflect general modes of coordination and steering. Empirically, we describe the governing modes as classified in our scheme in two European policy areas: EU social policy and EU environmental policy.
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Policy Memorandum on the Emergence and Evolution of the Governing Modes in the Areas of Social and Environmental Policies
Holger Bähr, Oliver Treib, Gerda Falkner
How does the European Union (EU) reach its decisions and which instruments does it employ to achieve its political goals? This paper sheds light on the evolution over time of different governing modes in two policy areas that are in many ways crucial for the everyday life of EU citizens: EU environmental and social policy. In order to explore the emergence and evolution of governing modes in European social and environmental policy, the present paper analyses the quantitative development of legally binding and legally non-binding policy outputs. It gives an overview of the quantitative development of binding and non-binding policy-outputs in European environmental and social policy, and presents two alternative hypotheses to explain the emergence of hard law and soft law. The paper describes changes in the decision rules in both policy areas because decision rules are regarded as a potential explanatory factor by one of these hypotheses. It then discusses the empirical findings against the background of the theoretical arguments and summarises the results of the analysis and considers their implications for future research.
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Expansion of the Community Method in European Environmental and Social Policy
Holger Bähr, Oliver Treib, Gerda Falkner
This paper analyses the expansion of the "Community Method" in European environmental and social policy. The Community Method denotes one specific mode of policy-making within the EU which usually leads to policy outputs in the form of hard law. The paper describes the development of competences and decision-making procedures in these policy areas as well as the quantitative development of hard and soft law, and it relates this development to changes in decision rules in the two policy areas. First, the analysis reveals that the expansion of explicit legislative competences and the proliferation of qualified majority voting was a much more protracted process in social policy if compared to environmental policy. Second, binding and non-binding policy outputs have developed differently in both policy areas. In order to account for these developments, the paper discusses two contrasting hypotheses. The data yields no support for the argument that there is a general trend towards the adoption of softer, more flexible policy instruments since these are more effective in solving many of the problems faced by complex systems of governance. The alternative hypothesis that soft law is regarded as second-best solution, which is replaced by hard law as soon as institutional arrangements allow it, is supported by the observations in social policy but not by the observations in environmental policy. In conclusion, the paper points to the different levels of political conflict in both policy areas as a possible explanation for the divergent developments.
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Social Policy and Environmental Policy: Comparing Modes of Governance - 2nd version of the chapter for joint monograph
Oliver Treib, Holger Bähr, Gerda Falkner
This article is the second version of a chapter for the joint monograph “The Dynamics of Change in EU Governance: Policy-making and System Evolution“. Starting from the assumption that the logic of policy-making in the EU and the differences and similarities between policy areas can only be understood by applying a specific toolkit, the authors analyse the emergence and evolution of modes of governance in EU social policy and EU environmental policy in a comparative manner. At this, the paper gives an overview of the emergence and evolution of modes of governance in the two policy areas and discusses which factors account for the different dynamics, and the differences in resulting governing modes.
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