Abstract What are the consequences of European integration for the member states? In this essay, I would like to show how the integration has changed the institutional options for action open to national actors. I start by looking at the German political system, which tends to bottleneck reform...

Abstract Analyses of European integration processes are still dominated by the dichotomous debate between intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. Sides are often taken in this debate based on very case-specific empirical findings. An analysis of two cases, European telecommunications and...

AbstractThis paper contributes to the ongoing discussion about the scope for autonomous action of supranational organizations in the European Union, focussing on the European Commission. In the literature, the independence of the Commission is frequently questioned, while the relative autonomy...

What is the scope for autonomous action of the European Commission? Its independence is much more contentious than that of the European Court of Justice, which is generally considered quite autonomous. While the literature on the Commission focuses predominantly on its ability to use its...

In the course of completing the Single European Market the liberalization of telecommunications is a key issue. A central question is how public policy and market mechanisms can be combined to achieve a regulatory structure that strikes a balance between public service and advanced business...

Gerichte treffen politische Entscheidungen. Folglich kann Rechtsprechung als politischer Prozess untersucht werden, in dem Interessen, Ideen und Machtressourcen eine Rolle spielen. Britta Rehder untersucht den Beitrag des Bundesarbeitsgerichts zur Entstehung und Entwicklung des deutschen...

Neue Kommunikationstechnologien, Internet, Gentechnik - drei Beispiele, die zeigen, dass Technik ein wesentlicher Faktor des Wandels moderner Gesellschaften ist. Wann, warum und wodurch können neue Technologien bestehende Strukturen und Regeln destabilisieren und soziale Veränderungen...

What is the impact of business interest groups on the formulation of public social policies? This paper reviews the literature in political science, history, and sociology on this question. It identifies two strands: one analyzes the political power and influence of business, the other the...

In most rich democracies one finds a tendency for the share in public finance that is available for discretionary spending to shrink. This is because tax revenues do not keep pace with simultaneous increases in fixed expenditures and growing pressures for fiscal consolidation. The present paper...