Webpages tagged with « political science»

How should one perceive of the efforts to strengthen the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the EU? This paper considers this development in the light of political theory, concluding that interest-based political realism must be supplemented by a deliberative perspective to take full account of the strenghtened foreign policy capabilities of the EU.

ARENA Working Paper 09/2003 (pdf)

Helene Sjursen

In this essay Johan P. Olsen questions the analytical value of ‘autonomy’ as detachment-from-politics and the apolitical dynamics of change assumed by NPM reformers; that is, reforms understood and justified solely in terms of their contribution to functional efficiency and economy and a good and sustainable government. He aims aims to make sense of the processes through which institutions, democratic government included, achieve and lose autonomy or primacy and why it is difficult to find a state of equilibrium between democratic government and institutional autonomy.

ARENA Working Paper 01/2009 (pdf)

Johan P. Olsen

In this paper Raunio is discussing the connection between national parliaments and the EU. The main purpose of this paper is to critically examine the state of the research on the role of national parliaments in European integration and to suggest avenues for further research.

ARENA Working Paper 02/2009 (pdf)

Tapio Raunio

In this paper the authors document that agency officials pay significantly less attention to signals from executive politicians than their counterparts within ministerial departments.

ARENA Working Paper 09/2009 (pdf)

Morten Egeberg and Jarle Trondal

How is the University as an institution affected by ongoing processes of European integration?

ARENA Working Paper 03/2007 (pdf)

Å. Gornitzka, P. Maassen, J. P. Olsen, and B. Stensaker

This paper contributes to the empirical knowledge in the field by investigating bicameral political dynamics based on a combined data set covering legislators’ behavior in both the Council and the Parliament.

ARENA Working Paper 09/2007 (pdf)

Bjorn Hoyland and Sara Hagemann

This paper specifies the scope conditions of the logics of appropriateness and consequentiality in the JHA Council.

ARENA Working Paper 15/2007 (pdf)

Jonathan P. Aus

This paper discusses the ‘agencification’ and fragmentation of national governments, and questions whether a ‘methodological nationalism’ has hindered us from seeing the emerging executive centre at the level above, i.e. the European Commission, and the re-coupling of nationally decoupled agencies into a multilevel Union administration.

ARENA Working Paper 05/2007 (pdf)

Morten Egeberg

Institutions based upon the systematic separation of different decision functions may stimulate deliberative decision-making, if they hinder negotiators from introducing their bargaining power into the negotiation process. Such arrangements exist for the regulation of requirements for health and safety of products within the Single Market. The article explores the underlying causal mechanism and examines the cases of machines and toys.

ARENA Working Paper 06/2007 (pdf)

Thomas Gehring

This paper examines evolutionary theories developed in the life sciences and explores the ways in which specific concepts and/or insights from these theories can be profitably applied to social and political institutions.

ARENA Working Paper 19/2007 (pdf)

Orion Lewis and Sven Steinmo

The European Commission occupies a pivotal role as the key executive institution of the European Union (EU). This paper aims to re-assess the behavioural autonomy of the European Commission, as well as organisational conditions thereof.

ARENA Working Paper 04/2007 (pdf)

Jarle Trondal

In spite of relentless criticism over many years bureaucracies and bureaucrats are possibly experiencing a renaissance. The aim of this paper is to make sense of this puzzle by exploring bureaucracy as a specific way of organizing public administration in democratic societies. Through what processes and under what conditions is administrative organization likely to come close to the Weberian ideal type?

ARENA Working Paper 14/2007 (pdf)

Johan P. Olsen

This paper discusses qualitative comparative methodology as applied within a “small-N” research design, with its potential use for specifying the scope conditions of causal mechanisms.

ARENA Working Paper 28/2005 (pdf)

Jonathan P. Aus

This paper gives a shorthand account of the approach of new institutionalism, illuminating its view of political institutions as endogenous and self-containing to explain political performance and change.

ARENA Working Paper 11/2005 (pdf)

James G. March & Johan P. Olsen

A paper discussing the development of independent authorities and agencies in Italy and their interaction with national government and the European Commission. As is argued, direct relations between national agencies and EU institutions are often detrimental to government control.

ARENA Working Paper 21/2004 (pdf)

Dario Barbieri

Process tracing, much in the ascendant as methodological approach, brings research closer to politics and strengthens the reliability of our findings. However, there are obvious risks entailed.

ARENA Working Paper 26/2005 (pdf)

Jeffrey T. Checkel

This essay discusses the concept of theory as it has been applied in social sciences; it arrives at a classification of four different uses of the word.

ARENA Working Paper 33/1999 (html)

Lars Mjøset