Policy Declarations Research Articles

Europeanisation and the EU's comprehensive approach to crisis management in Africa

ABSTRACTThis article asks to what extent the European Union (EU) and its member states actually pursued and implemented comprehensive approaches in relation to crisis management in Africa. It also asks what can explain the lack of full implementation of the comprehensive approach in the cases of South Sudan, Mali and the Central African Republic. It is shown that EU member states saw the added value of the common EU approach while at the same time they pursued national interests at odds with the common goals of the EU. The flaws in implementation of the comprehensive approach are mainly explained by member states' preoccupation with taking care of national interests rather than joining ranks with other member states and the EU institutions. There appears to be an exception to the rule: when Europe's security is perceived as being high on the agenda, the implementation of the comprehensive approach may follow policy declarations more closely. The comprehensive approach nevertheless indicates an emerging Europeanisation norm influencing policy approaches to the sensitive nexuses that link security, development and crisis response. Evidence from country-level interventions reveals that this norm is yet to impact on the member state political will required to Europeanise country-level implementation where important national interests are perceived to be at stake.

Science and policy: Crossing the boundary

Because of their specific knowledge, scientists are well positioned to identify environmental threats to humankind, sound the alarm, and propose and comment, at least on a general level, on potential responses. However, many policy makers and scientists believe that scientists should have no more to say about public issues than anyone else and that science can only tell us how the world is, not how it ought to be. Although there are deep differences between science and policy, the line between policy-relevant and policy-prescriptive science is under continual negotiation, and there is no uniquely “objective” way of characterizing facts. In the authors’ view, scientists should generally refrain from making recommendations in areas far from their expertise and from making categorical policy declarations, but when their expertise is relevant scientists should not be excluded from the policy process whether by external forces or by self-censorship. Scientists’ input and influence has played a key role in the past, and remains essential in shaping responses to important policy questions such as what to do about anthropogenic climate change.

Utopian Visions and the American Dream

Utopian narratives express a universal yearning for a better human society in response to each author’s perception of malfunction and malfeasance in his or her own society. The earliest one of which I am aware (other than the legendary folk tale of the Garden of Eden) is Plato’s Republic. I review and comment on selected utopian literature from Plato to the modern American dream and a humanist vision for a global social order. To its authors, utopian visions are not mere wishful thinking, but societal policy declarations that at least in principle can be implemented, if only in part.

Whole-of-Government Approaches to Fragile States in Africa

For a number of years fragile states have been high on the foreign policy agendas of the USA and the EU. Both actors look upon fragile states with great concern and consider them as security threats. Officially they give priority to ‘whole-of-government approaches’ (wga) when addressing the threats from these states. However, there is a gap between the policy declarations and the policies implemented by the two actors. The missing link in the implementation of wga in Africa is explained by two variables: on the one hand, material interests in the continent and, on the other hand, the institutions in Washington and Brussels involved in policy making. It is the lack of a strong foreign policy priority for Africa that explains the inadequate US implementation of wga. In the case of the EU, it is the multitude of institutions and institutional interests that explains the lack of implementation, rather than a lack of European interests in the fragile states on continent.

Integration Without Europeanisation: Ukraine and its Policy Towards the European Union

This paper examines the progress Europeanisation in the post-Soviet states, using Ukraine as a case study on the eve of EU's launch of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in 2004. It is argued that since the late 1990s Ukraine had indicated its willingness to participate in European integration by declaring the intention of joining the European Union. Yet its foreign policy declarations were not been matched by the necessary acceleration of reforms in the domestic context. Ukraine sought integration with the EU but without underging Europeanisation, i.e. extensive change to institutions and policies at the domestic level in response to EU’s conditionality - as has been the case with East-Central European states. The paper aims to explain why Ukraine’s integration with the EU remained declarative by mid-2000s by focusing on: first, the sources of Ukraine’s policy towards the EU both at the elite and mass levels; second, the reasons for Ukraine’s inability to enact the ‘European choice’ in domestic reforms, and, finally, the conditions under which a shift from declarations to actual Europeanisation in post-Soviet non-EU countries might occur by drawing insights from the literature on the EU’s eastern enlargement.

English-medium degree programs in Japanese universities: learning from the European experience

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges facing Japanese institutions of higher education wishing to implement degree programs taught through the medium of English. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a comparative perspective in examining the rationales and policies for, and the challenges and successes associated with, the adoption of English-medium instruction (EMI) in Japan and in Europe, where EMI has a longer history. It uses government policy declarations and reports and synthesizes the research literature and information published by universities. Next, it investigates the practices that apply to the Japanese context and provides recommendations on the strategies that Japanese decision makers could adopt. Findings – Japan does not share exactly the same rationales for adopting EMI as many European countries, however there is utility in looking to Europe for best practices. Japanese institutions of higher education can benefit from examining the linguistic, cultural and structural dilemmas that EMI poses. Research limitations/implications – Documented evidence of the successful implementation of EMI programs is scarce, and therefore it is difficult to provide a comprehensive study of strategies that can be used to overcome the challenges which accompany EMI. This paper does not examine the introduction of EMI programs in Japan in relation to other Asian contexts. Originality/value – As Japan is still in the early phases of introducing EMI programs, this paper provides valuable information for those involved in their implementation.

The EU and the Security-Development Nexus: Bridging the Legal Divide

The need to enhance the coherence of EU security and development policies is stressed in numerous EU policy declarations. This article analyses this commitment against the background of the legal architecture of EU foreign policy. This demonstrates that the political simplicity with which this commitment is often put forward tends to hide the complexity of this undertaking in an external action system that submits the policy fields of development cooperation and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) to different rules and procedures. While the EU institutions have increasingly targeted development and security policies at the mutual challenges of insecurity and poverty, the lack of a shared and comprehensive strategy leads to significant improvisation. On the one hand, the ad hoc replies to this commitment have resulted in the development of a particularly fragmented EU toolbox to deal with these challenges. On the other hand, this raises important questions regarding the choice of appropriate legal bases for the various policy initiatives that span the security-development nexus. It is argued that the Lisbon Treaty, by interlinking the CFSP and development cooperation both constitutionally and institutionally, creates significant opportunities that, combined with the necessary political will, allow the EU to move beyond its ad hoc approach.

Policy Goals of European Integration and Competitiveness in Academic Collaborations: An Examination of Joint Master's and Erasmus Mundus Programmes

This study examines policy goals pertaining to joint Master's in Europe as presented in Bologna-related and Erasmus Mundus (EM) policy texts. The profile of joint programmes has risen in the aftermath of the Bologna Process (BP), together with the launch of the EU EM. Despite a European policy tradition of cooperation in higher education (HE), degree developments were usually left outside the scope of policy declarations and did not have an explicit ‘agenda status’. If so, what makes these degree developments ‘worthy’ of political attention in recent years? The paper shows that joint Master's developments have been represented as appropriate action for furthering integration and convergence, as well as for improving competitiveness. It examines the ways in which joint Master's developments have been framed within and by these policy goals. It finally questions drivers of competitiveness and considers their deeper implications for the aims of and practice in HE.

Spatial Voting in Spain

This work evaluates the receptivity of the Spanish electorate to policy positions that are distant from the status quo. To that end, two spatial voting models are considered: the proximity and the directional model. The analysis also evaluates the econometric consequences of employing subsidiary measures of the status quo in policy spaces. The result suggests that the majority of the Spanish electorate adjusts to a hybrid model of spatial voting, where proximity dominates. Only the supporters of the main opposition party are receptive to non-moderate policy declarations. Altogether, this work helps unravel the microfoundations of party competition in Spain.

Climate paradox of the G-8: legal obligations, policy declarations and implementation gap

This article analyzes the climate policy performance of the G-8 from 1992 to 2012 based on their legal commitments (Annex-1 and Annex-B countries) under the UNFCCC (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and their policy declarations on their GHG reduction goals until 2050. A climate paradox has emerged due to a growing implementation gap in Canada, USA and Japan, while Russia, Germany, UK, France and Italy fulfilled their GHG reduction obligation.

Methodological Issues of the 'More Economic Approach' to Unilateral Exclusionary Conduct. Proposal of Analysis Starting from the Treatment of Retroactive Rebates

At the outset of this paper, I address the treatment of retroactive loyalty-inducing rebates from an economic angle by first considering specific models put forward by scholars who have severely criticised the Commission’s practice and the Luxemburg-based Courts’ case law on target and retroactive rebates. In the process, I highlight their common assumptions and the policy implications they entail vis-a-vis rather diverging approaches. I then move on to question whether or not the 82 Guidance’s analytical framework regarding the conduct under discussion is likely to satisfy those who have repeatedly criticises the Commission for not discarding an overly restrictive and formalistic case law on Article 82.By a typical inductive process, this leads me to critically consider the current role of economics within the context of competition policy and, in particular, with regard to unilateral allegedly exclusionary conduct by dominant firms. Accordingly, I examine the economic theoretical basis of EC competition policy and the primary goals the Commission has recently indicated as yardsticks for the ongoing effect-based review. The results of this analysis are somewhat counter-intuitive. Despite the apparent clarity of the Commission’s policy declarations, the foremost aims it explicitly pursues (ie consumer welfare and allocative efficiency) might be competing.The fact that the main aims might be competing is not the only counter-intuitive outcome. Even the expression “more economic approach” is susceptible to various (and diverging) interpretations that do not necessarily fit with one another. Furthermore, even though the current economic models advocating for grounding the review process of EC Competition policy are claimed to represent a reasonably solid anchor for the future application of Article 82 to exclusionary conduct, they still present inherent problematic aspects renowned economists and legal scholars have systematically highlighted.8 Therefore, in the third section of this paper, I attempt to outline the mainmethodological issues intrinsic to the so-called “modern economic approach”.9 My analysis is carried out keeping in mind what sometimes seems to be, at best, implied: the economic paradigms supposed to underpin the review process of abuse doctrine are not the most modern.10 Neoclassical microeconomic theories and industrial organisation’s tenets could be prolifically integrated with the fundamental insights of even-more-modern approaches, namely: information economics, economics of innovation and behavioural economics.Finally, I ponder whether the “more economic approach” orientating the internal review process of the abuse doctrine can be properly integrated with basic legal values and the peculiar aims assigned to competition policy by the EC Treaty. In other words, I question whether the privileged position lately accorded to (a certain meaning of) economic efficiency and consumer welfare can be conciliated with a richer synthesis between Community policies and legal principles preserved by the European Courts.11As a matter of clarification, I would also like to state that it goes beyond the scope of this work to propose definitive solutions as to what extent economic analysis should be employed and which shape it could end up taking. However, I aim at making it clear that any argument in favour of “the more economic approach” is remarkably vulnerable insofar as it does not explicate how it solves the inevitable trade-offs it faces. For instance, assuming consumer welfare as a guiding objective, any model has to show how regularly (and the standard length of the period over which) firms’ surplus is expected to be attained without affecting consumer welfare. The latter explanations represent the minimal contents of any system claiming to constitute the orientating paradigm even within the borders of traditional microeconomics. Hardly any relevance can be attributed to any arguments against the treatment of alleged foreclosing conduct by the Commission and European Courts—this holds true irrespective of how well articulated the pars destruens is—if the competent authorities are left without any solid parameter for carrying out their activity. My take is that any economic theory deployed for revising the abuse doctrine reflects a particular viewpoint of competition policy and, ultimately, represents a peculiar political choice. Formulated in slightly different words, the positivistic view of thinkers who deny an inherent and natural character of the marketplace permeates this study.

Raising the Quality of Life of the Russian Citizens - The Key Issue of the State Policy

The new century marked by declarations of Russia's new public policy in healthcare, education, housing, agroindustrial complexes. Does it mean that the state is ready to invest in human recourses and make it a national priority?

Gender mainstreaming in a South African provincial education department: a transformative shift or technical fix for oppressive gender relations?

Although some gender activists and analysts question the efficacy of gender mainstreaming to take forward women's demands, the South African government has pursued the strategy within a number of government departments including the Department of Education. This article explores how the strategy is being implemented in one provincial education department. Using data generated in 2008–9 through case study methods that employed aspects of an ethnographic approach, a key finding was that both the social justice aspiration and the technical interventions associated with the policy are considerably hampered by lack of resources and a clear policy framework. Many charged with implementing gender mainstreaming draw on memories of activism and international policy declarations give promise of a possibility of a transformative fix, although the absence of resources to secure this remain a matter for concern.

Methodological Issues of the “More Economic Approach” to Unilateral Exclusionary Conduct. Proposal of Analysis Starting from the Treatment of Retroactive Rebates

At the outset of this paper, I address the treatment of retroactive loyalty-inducing rebates from an economic angle by first considering specific models put forward by scholars who have severely criticised the Commission’s practice and the Luxemburg-based Courts’ case law on target and retroactive rebates. In the process, I highlight their common assumptions and the policy implications they entail vis-a-vis rather diverging approaches. I then move on to question whether or not the 82 Guidance’s analytical framework regarding the conduct under discussion is likely to satisfy those who have repeatedly criticises the Commission for not discarding an overly restrictive and formalistic case law on Article 82.By a typical inductive process, this leads me to critically consider the current role of economics within the context of competition policy and, in particular, with regard to unilateral allegedly exclusionary conduct by dominant firms. Accordingly, I examine the economic theoretical basis of EC competition policy and the primary goals the Commission has recently indicated as yardsticks for the ongoing effect-based review. The results of this analysis are somewhat counter-intuitive. Despite the apparent clarity of the Commission’s policy declarations, the foremost aims it explicitly pursues (ie consumer welfare and allocative efficiency) might be competing.The fact that the main aims might be competing is not the only counter-intuitive outcome. Even the expression “more economic approach” is susceptible to various (and diverging) interpretations that do not necessarily fit with one another. Furthermore, even though the current economic models advocating for grounding the review process of EC Competition policy are claimed to represent a reasonably solid anchor for the future application of Article 82 to exclusionary conduct, they still present inherent problematic aspects renowned economists and legal scholars have systematically highlighted.8 Therefore, in the third section of this paper, I attempt to outline the mainmethodological issues intrinsic to the so-called “modern economic approach”.9 My analysis is carried out keeping in mind what sometimes seems to be, at best, implied: the economic paradigms supposed to underpin the review process of abuse doctrine are not the most modern.10 Neoclassical microeconomic theories and industrial organisation’s tenets could be prolifically integrated with the fundamental insights of even-more-modern approaches, namely: information economics, economics of innovation and behavioural economics.Finally, I ponder whether the “more economic approach” orientating the internal review process of the abuse doctrine can be properly integrated with basic legal values and the peculiar aims assigned to competition policy by the EC Treaty. In other words, I question whether the privileged position lately accorded to (a certain meaning of) economic efficiency and consumer welfare can be conciliated with a richer synthesis between Community policies and legal principles preserved by the European Courts.11As a matter of clarification, I would also like to state that it goes beyond the scope of this work to propose definitive solutions as to what extent economic analysis should be employed and which shape it could end up taking. However, I aim at making it clear that any argument in favour of “the more economic approach” is remarkably vulnerable insofar as it does not explicate how it solves the inevitable trade-offs it faces. For instance, assuming consumer welfare as a guiding objective, any model has to show how regularly (and the standard length of the period over which) firms’ surplus is expected to be attained without affecting consumer welfare. The latter explanations represent the minimal contents of any system claiming to constitute the orientating paradigm even within the borders of traditional microeconomics. Hardly any relevance can be attributed to any arguments against the treatment of alleged foreclosing conduct by the Commission and European Courts—this holds true irrespective of how well articulated the pars destruens is—if the competent authorities are left without any solid parameter for carrying out their activity. My take is that any economic theory deployed for revising the abuse doctrine reflects a particular viewpoint of competition policy and, ultimately, represents a peculiar political choice. Formulated in slightly different words, the positivistic view of thinkers who deny an inherent and natural character of the marketplace permeates this study.

‘Consumer Welfare’ and Article 82EC: Practice and Rhetoric

This article questions whether the objective of Article 82EC is indeed enhancing ‘consumer welfare’ as suggested by the EC Commission when one examines the application of the provision thus far. It critically analyses the case law of the EC Commission and Courts to show that there is great dissonance between the practice and the policy declarations on the provision. When one considers the practice alongside the rhetoric, Article 82EC appears as a provision enforced without a clear standard of harm leading to doubts about the legitimacy of enforcement. The article suggests that without a properly defined standard applied in actual decisions by the EC Commission and upheld by the EC Courts, the modernization of Article 82EC cannot succeed.

Do Privacy Statements Really Work? The Effect of Privacy Statements and Fair Information Practices on Trust and Perceived Risk in E-Commerce

Companies today collect, store and process enormous amounts of information in order to identify, gain, and maintain customers. Electronic commerce and advances in database and communication technology allow business to collect and analyze more personal information with greater ease and efficiency than ever before. This has resulted in increased privacy concerns and a lack of trust among consumers. These concerns have prompted the FCC to call for the use of Fair Information Practices in electronic commerce. Many firms have added privacy statements, formal declarations of privacy and security policy, to their e-commerce web sites in an attempt to reduce privacy concerns by increasing consumer trust in the firm and reducing the perceived risk associated with e-commerce transactions. This article describes an experiment designed to determine the efficacy of that strategy.

California's Climate Change Policy

For all its economic capacity, population size, and resource base, California remains only one among the 50 United States and, essentially, is a subnational actor attempting to play a role in the climate change policy arena on par with the nation-states of the world. This raises a series of questions about the substance and breadth of the state's new policy and what has motivated it. The state's policy declarations and initial flurry of activities are impressive. As with all so broad and sweeping initiatives, it remains to be seen the extent to which policy goals can and will be translated into operational rules and regulations, incentives and sanctions, and actual accomplishments across all the sectors of the state's economy over the course of not just months and years but the decades to come.

California's Climate Change Policy: The Case of a Sub-National State Actor Tackling a Global Challenge

For all its economic capacity, population size, and resource base, California remains only one among 50 of the United States and, essentially, is a sub-national actor attempting to play a role in the climate change policy arena on par with the nation-states of the world. This raises a series of questions about the substance and breadth of the state’s new policy and what has motivated it. Moreover, as apparently as impressive as is the state’s policy declarations and initial flurry of activities, as with all so broad and sweeping initiatives it remains to be seen the extent to which policy goals can and will be translated into operational rules and regulations, incentives and sanctions, and actual accomplishments across all the sectors of the state’s economy over the course of not just months and years but across the decades to come.

'Consumer Welfare' and Article 82EC: Practice and Rhetoric

This paper questions whether the objective of Article 82EC is indeed enhancing 'consumer welfare' as suggested by the EC Commission when one examines the application of the provision thus far. It critically analyses the case law of the EC Commission and Courts to show that there is great dissonance between the practice and the policy declarations on the provision. When one considers the practice alongside the rhetoric, Article 82EC appears as a provision enforced without a clear standard of harm leading to doubts about the legitimacy of enforcement. The article suggests that without a properly defined standard applied in actual decisions by the EC Commission and upheld by the EC Courts, the modernisation of Article 82EC cannot succeed.

The rhetoric and reality of NCLB

Whether explicitly by name or not No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a force for reckoning in the lives of US educators, students and people at large. What exactly is the nature of this ‘force’ and for whom? Why are its actions and effects often not compatible with its declared intentions? This policy is supposed to be a transformative approach by the federal government to closing the achievement gap by ensuring that all students from various ethnic, social, racial, cultural, economic and ability backgrounds receive the same high‐quality education. But, how real is this rhetoric? Are the intended benefactors—as claimed in policy declarations—the ones in actuality? Is there a subtext to the mandates of NCLB that perpetuate educational inequities and achievement gaps instead of overcoming them? Is NCLB more rhetoric than reality, fiction than fact, reproduction than transformation, form than substance? These are the questions that underlie the subsequent discussion. While each one will not be answered separately they are all embedded in the analyses presented. Readers are challenged to think deeply and critically about NCLB with respect to what this educational policy and its related practices promise, what they actually deliver and to whom, and how they affect the most vulnerable student populations in US schools. Four claims are examined here to reveal some of the inherent contradictions in what NCLB purports to do, and what it actually does. These are educational significance, teacher quality, the choice for all students to attend a high‐achieving school and dealing with diversity.