EUROPEAN MODELS OF SPORT: GOVERNANCE, ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE AND SPORTS POLICY IN THE EU

Abstract

This paper addresses organisational aspects of European sports policy primarily at the nation-state level, but also in respect of the European Union. In particular it seeks to identify and evaluate the nature and structure of policy systems and the changes such systems might be undergoing within the EU. Although there has been a relatively recent growth in comparative analysis of elite policy systems (Bosscher Veerle De, Bingham Jerry, & Simon, 2007; Green & Houlihan, 2005; Houlihan, Bergsgard, Mangset, Nødland, & Rommetvedt, 2007), more general reviews of sport policy have tended to be limited to collections of single nation studies (Chalip, Johnson, & Stachura, 1996) or to address transnational and global policy influences (Henry & Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy, 2007). While material with a European focus does exist, this has related to leisure policy rather than sport (Bramham, Henry, Mommaas, & van der Poel, 1993) or to the European Union per se (Henry, 2008) rather than to European Member Statesʼ sports policies. One of the few sources to address sports policy, from mass to elite, and with a distinctively comparative approach and a focus on the European Union is the report of Jean Camy and his colleagues in the VOCASPORT report (VOCASPORT Research Group, 2004) commissioned by the Sports Unit of the European Commission. In a concise 10 page section of the report the authors seek to outline a typology of sports policy systems in the EU. This chapter aims to extend the VOCASPORT analysis by : exploring the nature of the overall policy goals promoted by, or consistent with, each of the ideal type configurations; evaluating the nature and emphasis of the philosophy of service delivery in each configuration; identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each of the four configurations; and explaining the tensions within national systems that are reflected in shifts from one configuration towards another. The concluding section of the chapter will seek to outline the relationship between the approach to sports policy implicit in the European Commissionʼs White paper on Sport (European Commission, 2007) and the approaches evident in the VOCASPORT typology.