Sub-national bureaucracies in the European administrative space

Abstract

ABSTRACT An important stream of research has developed focusing on the embedding of national central government institutions into an emerging multilevel European Union (EU) administration. The role of sub-national governmental institutions within this integrated administration has however received relatively little attention. Assuming that sub-national bureaucracies are key vehicles in the ‘ground-level’ practicing of supranational law, this study examines how sub-national bureaucrats may find themselves in situations where they balance contending preferences and concerns of multiple, and competing, principals. Benefiting from original survey data gathered in Norwegian and Swedish municipalities, we assess how the notion of ‘multi-hatted’ bureaucratic agents noted in the multilevel union administration literature can be transferred to the sub-national level and provide insights into how sub-national bureaucrats relate to multiple principals and how policy conflicts are resolved in the ‘ground level’ implementation of supranational law.