Constellation Of Preferences Research Articles

Preference Constellations in EU–Russian Crisis Bargaining over Syria and Ukraine

AbstractThe Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 and the ensuing EU–Russian clash over the fate of Ukraine highlight the importance of explaining the outcomes of EU–Russian crisis bargaining. Complementing existing accounts, we argue that favourable preference constellations are key: The more determined, united and focused side prevails over its less interested, divided or unfocused counterpart. We first establish the inferiority of Russia's influence assets (economic, military, normative and allies) relative to the EU. We then use congruence analysis to reverse‐engineer crisis bargaining outcomes in key cases of EU–Russian crisis bargaining, showing that favourable preference constellations allowed Russia, despite inferior assets and EU opposition, to ensure Syrian dictator Assad's political survival, finalize the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and keep Donbass out of Kyiv's control since then. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for related areas, as well as for current and future EU–Russian crisis bargaining, specifically over Ukraine.

The EU’s ‘strategic partnership’ with China in a post-Brexit world: Recalibrating internal dynamics and facing up to external challenges

The UK has played a critical role in shaping EU–China relations. Policymakers need to carefully consider the extent to which Brexit will weaken the EU’s collective power – shifting the balance in China’s favour – and impact prospects for increasing EU involvement in East Asia. Brexit arrives at a moment when negotiations for an ambitious bilateral investment agreement continue – with an eye on an eventual free trade agreement – while EU policymakers increasingly perceive challenges arising from the expansion of China’s global presence, exemplified by the Belt and Road Initiative, the creation of alternative international institutions, and its behaviour in the South China Sea disputes. As both the EU and China emerge as global powers, the significance of their relationship’s trajectory extends beyond bilateral confines. I analyse how the relationship’s contemporary dynamics are playing out and likely to evolve. Assessing the impact of Brexit on the relative power balance, specifically the EU27’s collective economic, military and political power, sets the scene for mapping out the ‘state of play’ in four crucial issue areas, highlighting the UK’s preferences and input. This leads to consideration of how the loss of resources and shifting constellation of preferences among the EU27 could affect the attainment of strategic objectives. I argue that while Brexit does not fundamentally disrupt the EU–China relationship, it will weaken the EU’s capacity to respond to China’s rise and necessitates a recalibration to the new constellation of Member State preferences and reduced resources.

Legislative Control over Executive Law‐making: Delegation of Quasi‐legislative Powers to the European Commission

AbstractMost EU legislation consists of executive acts of the European Commission. The Lisbon Treaty introduced a new type of EU executive legislation – delegated acts, which give the European Parliament formal powers of legislative scrutiny equal to those of the EU Council. Thus, the use of delegated acts could reinforce the institutional balance of power and help reduce the EU's democratic deficit. We studied the situations when the Parliament and the Council agreed to grant the Commission the right to adopt delegated acts, considering the preference constellations of legislative and executive actors and legislative complexity. Using a novel dataset on post‐Lisbon legislation, we found that delegated acts are more likely in cases of high legislative complexity and when the Council sees the Parliament as an ally vis‐à‐vis the Commission. However, the European Parliament gets no say over executive measures when doing so could shift policy outcomes away from the Council's preferences, raising doubts about the effectiveness of parliamentary control.

Consumer preferences for public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles

The lack of public charging infrastructure is often referred to as an important barrier to the diffusion of electric vehicles. As the construction of charging stations is a costly endeavour, the question arises as to how maximum benefit for potential users can be achieved with limited resources. Therefore, our analysis deals with the factors that influence the attractiveness of public charging infrastructure from the perspective of potential users. Our analysis is based on the assessments of 1003 German car drivers on possible future charging infrastructure systems with different configurations regarding spatial coverage, charging duration and usage costs. We examined the preferences with regard to these features using a rating-based conjoint analysis. We also looked into the question of whether groups of car drivers can be identified that are characterised by specific preference constellations with regard to these features. Our key finding is that the majority of car drivers are unwilling to pay a basic fee for the possibility of using public charging infrastructure. Nevertheless, there are subgroups that value the public charging infrastructure more than other car drivers. In addition to implications for possible business models, this result indicates that public charging infrastructure could be important for attracting other target groups to electromobility besides classic early adopters of electric vehicles. Furthermore, our analysis shows that the charging duration at charging stations in cities and along the highway has a strong influence on the evaluation of the public charging infrastructure. The spatial coverage with charging stations in cities and along the highway, on the other hand, has a weaker influence. A central conclusion from this is that the existence of fast-charging stations should be prioritized over a close-meshed coverage with charging points when the charging infrastructure is expanded.

Balancing experimentalist and hierarchical governance in European Union electricity and telecommunications regulation: A matter of degrees

AbstractWhile the widespread diffusion of experimentalism across sectors and polities is well documented, less is known about the extent of the shift to this non‐hierarchical form of governance, which continues to coexist with traditional hierarchical governance and involves more inclusive rulemaking and revision based on review of alternative implementation experiences. By comparing and process‐tracing electricity and telecommunications regulation in the European Union, we find diversity in experimentalism over time and across two sectors often considered similar. We explain varying degrees of experimentalism with strategic uncertainty and the constellation of preferences, which we label “de facto polyarchy.” Thus, we confirm the emphasis on uncertainty documented in the experimentalist literature, while addressing a conventional critique by also highlighting the relevance of “politics.” Moreover, while corroborating the common spread of experimentalism, we suggest that an analytical framework based on ideal types offers the best route forward to develop comparative analysis of experimentalism and non‐hierarchical forms of governance more broadly.

Psychological Constellations Assessed at Age 13 Predict Distinct Forms of Eminence 35 Years Later

This investigation examined whether math/scientific and verbal/humanistic ability and preference constellations, developed on intellectually talented 13-year-olds to predict their educational outcomes at age 23, continue to maintain their longitudinal potency by distinguishing distinct forms of eminence 35 years later. Eminent individuals were defined as those who, by age 50, had accomplished something rare: creative and highly impactful careers (e.g., full professors at research-intensive universities, Fortune 500 executives, distinguished judges and lawyers, leaders in biomedicine, award-winning journalists and writers). Study 1 consisted of 677 intellectually precocious youths, assessed at age 13, whose leadership and creative accomplishments were assessed 35 years later. Study 2 constituted a constructive replication—an analysis of 605 top science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduate students, assessed on the same predictor constructs early in graduate school and assessed again 25 years later. In both samples, the same ability and preference parameter values, which defined math/scientific versus verbal/humanistic constellations, discriminated participants who ultimately achieved distinct forms of eminence from their peers pursuing other life endeavors.

Political (non-)reform in the euro crisis and the refugee crisis: a liberal intergovernmentalist explanation

ABSTRACTThe objective of this contribution is to account for the different political reform trajectories resulting from two of the most recent governance challenges faced by the European Union (EU), the so-called euro and refugee crises. While the euro crisis triggered various EU-level reforms, the refugee crisis has produced calls for policy and institutional reforms, most of which have – to date – not been adopted or implemented. We employ a liberal intergovernmentalist framework and show that differences in member states’ preferences in the two crises ensue from different exposures to negative externalities. Moreover, we attribute differences in EU member states’ willingness to engage in political reforms to variation in preference constellations among member states, producing different situation structures and bargaining dynamics. While the EU’s response to the euro crisis reflects a situation structure, which highlights both redistributive conflict and a demand for joint action, the response to the refugee crisis resembles a ‘Rambo’ game situation: the states least affected by migratory pressure were satisfied with the institutional status quo, and were thus able to leave the more affected states aggrieved.

Enhanced cooperation in practice. An analysis of differentiated integration in EU secondary law

ABSTRACTThe article offers a first comprehensive overview of the workings of enhanced cooperation in the European Union (EU). Although this form of secondary law differentiation exists since the Amsterdam Treaty, it has only rarely been used so far. In the article, we formulate a theory of when and why enhanced cooperation is used in EU decision-making. Our theory builds on rationalist institutionalism focussing on institutions, preference constellations and the externality structure of policies. We test the plausibility of our theoretical claims by combining comparative and within-case analyses of nine cases. The empirical findings underline that the usage of enhanced cooperation depends to large degrees on the externality structure of the goods under consideration. The article ends with a short normative evaluation of the enhanced cooperation procedure.

Europe as a global regulator? The limits of EU influence in international food safety standards

ABSTRACTThe European Union (EU) is often depicted as global regulatory power. This contribution contends that this depiction, while not unfounded, is misleading. It aims to clarify under what conditions the EU converts its regulatory capability into influence. Specifically, it seeks to resolve the puzzle of the EU's poor performance in the setting of global food safety standards within the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The argument is deceptively simple. The EU's limited influence is due to it being a preference outlier. In a context where standards can be agreed by voting, the stringency of the EU's regulations, rather than being a source of influence, is a liability. This extreme case demonstrates that the EU's ability to exercise international influence is affected by the constellation of preferences and the distribution of power. This contribution, therefore, contributes to the emerging literature that contends that the EU's international effectiveness can be understood only with explicit reference to the international context within which it is operating.

Preferences of Orange-winged Amazon parrots ( Amazona amazonica) for cage enrichment devices

Cage enrichment devices (ED), frequently termed cage “toys,” are often provided to captive parrots as a means of promoting a behaviorally stimulating environment, but it is not clear whether particular properties of EDs are more effective than others in eliciting engagement with them. We tested preference for color, size and hardness of cube-shaped EDs constructed from wood and of color preference for EDs constructed from flat rawhide rectangles. Orange-winged Amazon parrots ( Amazona amazonica; N = 8–10, mixed-sex, 4–5 years of age) were individually housed in cages each equipped with two computer-monitored omni-directional lever-type switches attached to cage ceilings. EDs were attached to the switches; any interactions generating lateral movement and causing switch closure (operationally constituting “use” of EDs) were continuously recorded. Preference for 3.8 cm 3 softwood (Douglas fir) cubes dyed in eight different colors was tested by presenting each bird with all combinations of colors, two colors at a time. Daily switch activity averages were computed for each bird and subjected to repeated-measures ANOVA: yellow cubes elicited greater use than red, green, blue, violet or natural cubes ( P < 0.05; but see below) and orange cubes were preferred over green and blue cubes ( P < 0.05). Color exerted no effect in a comparable trial of rawhide rectangles. Preference for size of yellow hardwood cubes was tested by presenting combinations of cubes of three sizes: 2.5, 3.8, and 5.1 cm 3; the smallest blocks were preferred over the largest size ( P < 0.001). Preference for hardness of wood was tested by presenting birds with 3.8 cm 3 yellow cubes and blue cubes made of either Douglas fir (“soft”) or birch/maple (“hard”) wood; birds preferred softer cubes ( P < 0.0002), but there was no significant preference of yellow over blue. The results show that color, hardness, size and material all influence ED use by captive Amazon parrots. This constellation of preferences may reflect properties of foods native to Orange-winged Amazon natural habitat.

Political Deadlock and Judicial De-Integration in the Single European Pharmaceutical Market

European integration in the pharmaceutical market is characterized by unequal progress. Achieved tradability and retained national price controls resulted in parallel trade for pharmaceuticals. The paper explains the processes and the outcomes of a long term negotiation process among member states, EU Commission and the pharmaceutical industry. The paper derives the constellation of preferences, analyzes the negotiation situation and explains the persisting deadlock, in which persisting divergence of preferences among the actors involved obstructed any political solution. As a clear case in point of Tsebelis' theoretical argument, this disagreement enabled the European Court of Justice to act as a stand-in policy maker. With its judgments, the court is setting a de-integration solution, which is tolerated by all po- litical actors, albeit they could not agree on this policy in the negotiations. The solution set is likely to be stable, because there is no consensus to revoke it.

Referendums in the EU’s constitution building process

In ten member states of the European Union (EU) the new constitutional treaty was supposed to be ratified by referendum. A growing number of theoretical models predicts that such additional ratification hurdles result in an advantage for negotiators in the bargaining game. The impact such a referendum constraint can exert, however, depends on the timing of its announcement, the remaining ratification rules as well as the preference constellations. If parliament and voters are actually in favor of the new treaty, ratification constraints may cease to affect the bargaining outcome. After presenting the theoretical foundation of these arguments, we present empirical evidence much in line with the theoretical implications. More specifically, especially for the issues changed during the intergovernmental conference, those governments gained that had scheduled a referendum and voters had a stronger preference for the status quo.