Resisting ‘new modes of governance’: An agency-centred approach

Abstract

The introduction of ‘new modes of governance’ in the European Union is presented by EU institutions and academics as a tool to circumvent non-compliance with hard law. While hard law regularly triggers attitudes of non-compliance, ‘new modes of governance’ are thought to push actors to reach objectives through a learning process leading to the transformation of actors’ preferences. This article will question this assumption. We argue that resistance to soft law is as frequent as that to hard law, although more difficult to study. The aim of this article is to develop a framework allowing for an analysis of attitudes of resistance to soft norms beyond specific countries or policy areas. On the basis of a systematic analysis of secondary literature on attitudes of resistance to soft law, the paper will show that agency-centred approaches in particular allow clear and testable hypotheses.