The emergence, execution and evolution of new modes of governance across several policy fields - and encompassing all three pillars of the European Union - are mapped, analyzed and evaluated. In particular, the expert contributors focus on the ways in which these innovative mechanisms and practices interrelate, how they relate to ?old' methods of governance, and what their implications are both for the effectiveness and efficiency of policymaking. Conclusions are drawn in the form of an integrated new framework that explains the dynamics of EU governance with an ?integrative spiral' driven by the interrelation between the legal and the living architecture of the EU. Linking research on modes of governance to the analysis of the basic legal, institutional and procedural features of the EU up to the Lisbon Treaty, this book will prove essential reading for scholars, researchers and policy makers in the fields of European studies, law and economics, and political science and theory.

The Transformation of Governance in the European Union presents a theoretically informed typology of modes of governance which is tested in a careful selection of comparative country and policy studies.

The book presents a theoretically informed typology of modes of governance which is tested in a careful selection of comparative country and policy studies. At the core is the question whether the European Union is destined to a network type of governance and whether and how this type of governance will be translated into the member states. The individual chapters subject the governing patterns at European and national level to empirical scrutiny. Drawing on recent research findings in different issue areas - including monetary union, social affairs, environment, genetic engineering and market liberalisation in transport, banking, energy, professional services - the contributions highlight the impact of the European activities on policy-making process in the member states.

Despite western Europe's traditional disdain for the United States' "adversarial legalism," the European Union is shifting toward a very similar approach to the law, according to Daniel Kelemen. Coining the term "eurolegalism" to describe the hybrid that is now developing in Europe, he shows how the political and organizational realities of the EU make this shift inevitable. The model of regulatory law that had long predominated in western Europe was more informal and cooperative than its American counterpart. It relied less on lawyers, courts, and private enforcement, and more on opaque networks of bureaucrats and other interests that developed and implemented regulatory policies in concert. European regulators chose flexible, informal means of achieving their objectives, and counted on the courts to challenge their decisions only rarely. Regulation through litigation-central to the U.S. model-was largely absent in Europe. But that changed with the advent of the European Union. Kelemen argues that the EU's fragmented institutional structure and the priority it has put on market integration have generated political incentives and functional pressures that have moved EU policymakers to enact detailed, transparent, judicially enforceable rules-often framed as "rights"-and back them with public enforcement litigation as well as enhanced opportunities for private litigation by individuals, interest groups, and firms.

This book addresses the ‘bigger picture’ of local-European relations and adds a new dimension to existing studies on multilevel governance and the Europeanisation of local government. Drawing from a combination of European integration theories and operational approaches, it introduces the idea of an integration cycle in which local government responds to the top-down impact of the EU internally, horizontally and vertically. This volume presents a wide range of empirical examples to demonstrate how local authorities across Europe have changed their practices, orientation and preferences, and adapted their institutions and organisation. Not only do cities, towns and counties cooperate with each other across borders and through transnational networks and partnerships, but by mobilising formally and informally, local actors participate in and influence European governance and contribute to the future trajectories of European integration, thereby completing the integration cycle.

Conforming neither to the hierarchical and bureaucratic organization of the European nation-state nor the anarchical structure of international organizations, the European Union (EU) and its predecessors provide an exemplary site for developing a decentred approach to the study of governance. The book offers an analysis of the formation and transformation of the EU as an example of governance above the nation-state and is framed by the recognition that the construction of the EU has resulted in variegated and decentred forms of governance. The chapters look at distinct aspects of EU governance to bring to light the influence of elite narratives, scientific rationalities, local traditions and meaningful practices in the making and remaking of European governance. As such, each chapter offers a unique contribution to the study of the EU. In doing so, the book challenges dominant narratives of European integration and policymaking that appeal to reified rationalities and social structures, and uncovers the contingency and conflict endemic to European governance. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union politics, European politics/studies, governance and, more broadly, to public management, international organizations, anthropology and sociology.