Institutions and Policy Networks in Europe

Abstract

This chapter reviews the European literature on institutions and policy networks. Institutions provide actors with opportunities and constraints for negotiation and cooperation and thus influence the structure of policy networks. The chapter first presents studies on the influence of country- and sector-level institutions on the structure of policy networks. The respective literature deals with the influence of consensual democracy versus majoritarian democracy, corporatist systems of interest intermediation, multiple levels of governance, degrees of European Union integration, processes of liberalization and democratization, and policy-process-specific venues on policy networks. The chapter then discusses the positions and roles of state actors in policy networks. Due to their formal decision-making power, state actors are either networking targets or play a key role in terms of network integration, brokerage, or network management. The review concludes with a short discussion of commonalities and directions for future research.