European Policy Analysis最新文献

Two years of the Covid-19 pandemic caused significantly different death tolls in European countries. Nine of the 30 countries with the highest accumulated fatalities belong to Central and Eastern Europe, although the solidarity of the European Union (EU) provided vaccines for all member states. Using correlation and cluster analysis, this paper identifies the demographic, social, and political factors which can explain the differences. As generally accepted in the literature, the death toll is measured by the number of excess deaths. The examination separates the prevaccination and vaccination periods. While the impact of other factors is also present, vaccination coverage has a salient explanatory role in the excess deaths of the second period. The experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic simultaneously highlight the importance and sociopolitical constraints of health policy at the European level. The analysis confirms that complementary competences between the European and national levels are adequate for the EU health policy.

Scholars agree that digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) pose a political challenge. In this article, we study empirically how different actors in the German political system define AI as a policy problem. We use an original data set of 6421 statements by representatives of political parties, interest groups, scientific experts, and public officials in parliamentary debates, government consultations, and quality newspapers. Through Discourse Network Analysis and quantitative text analyses we show that most actors define AI as technology (innovation) policy and link it to government operations, international cooperation, and macroeconomics. Although they are present, consumer protection, labor, and education seem to be less important policy issues concerning AI. The results imply that the capacity of the national government to reduce problem definition uncertainty and to steer the political agenda is difficult and that most actors focus on technological innovation rather than civil rights-related aspects.

This paper investigates variations in infringements of EU rules by substate authorities. The paper tests the effect of structure and actor level variables. First, we test structural factors in terms of the autonomy that substate authorities hold. Second, we test some actor level factors that may also increase transaction costs: autonomy of substate actors, public opinion on the EU and administrative capacity. The results indicate that there is a relationship between the increased autonomy of substate authorities and higher number of infringements. The results also provide support that preference to exercise this autonomy correlates with higher infringements. In addition, the results show that negative public opinion on the EU is strongly correlated to higher numbers of infringements. This suggests that transaction costs associated with multilevel policy implementation and attitudes to the EU are determinants of substate infringements.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic innovation that allows citizens to deliberate about a share of the public budget. Portugal was one of the most influent countries in this field in the last decade, as PB was implemented at multiple levels. However, few studies have made in-depth research on the financial dimensions of PB, which raises interest as to whether and how citizens' voice has had a significant impact on policy-making. To fill in this gap, this article considers the financial asset of local, regional, and national PBs in Portugal up to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our methodological approach relies on both quantitative data analyzed through Geographical Information Systems and descriptive statistics, and qualitative data retrieved from document analysis. Findings are discussed through four different stages of dissemination in the country, and show that despite significant advancements in this field, impacts in the financial dimensions lay behind expectations.

Most studies of policy entrepreneurship seek to understand how entrepreneurs influence the behavior of policy-makers in the agenda-setting or decision-making phases of the policy process. Recent scholarship has sought to understand what role entrepreneurs might play in policy implementation by focusing on their ability to influence bureaucrats' discretion and behavior. However, these studies overlook the potentially critical influence of policy entrepreneurs during the implementation of “opt-in” policies that require voluntary compliance by individuals to be successful. Here, we consider whether and how a visible policy entrepreneur can impact opt-in policy implementation, focusing on their credibility—or ability to gain public trust—as a potential driving factor of their influence. Using the empirical context of COVID-19 vaccination recommendations, we identify Dr. Anthony Fauci as a highly visible policy entrepreneur and assess his influence on individual vaccine intention and uptake. Drawing on data from a novel panel survey of the American public on attitudes about the virus, risk, politics, and vaccination during the first several months of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the United States, we test the relationship between respondent trust in Dr. Fauci and changes in reported intention to vaccinate and vaccination uptake across time. We find that trust in Dr. Fauci is an important predictor for influencing individuals' intention to vaccinate and actual vaccination behavior.

For energy transition, infrastructure construction is often indispensable but also contested and potentially problematic for social cohesion. Through a game theoretical lens, we examine the basic configuration of infrastructure conflicts. Informed by the empirical example of German electricity grid planning, we discuss three approaches to resolve multilevel infrastructure conflicts, (1) technocratic decision-making, (2) participatory decision-making, and (3) redistribution and compensation, as well as the conditions under which we can expect them to mitigate conflicts. Each of the three approaches has been tried out in German grid planning over time, which allows us to analyze whether the respective conditions were met and why the approaches were (not) able to resolve existing conflicts. We demonstrate that enduring conflicts in German grid expansion are not caused by a fundamentally ill-defined decision-making procedure but rather by a particularly “wicked” conflict structure that can hardly be resolved within planning procedures.

An emerging literature argues that street-level bureaucrats can develop and advocate for policy innovations that change policy in meaningful ways, calling this phenomenon “street-level policy entrepreneurship.” This argument is at the heart of the present special issue, which features contributions to developing the theoretical underpinnings of street-level policy entrepreneurship and empirically examining evidence for this phenomenon. While the traditional understanding of street-level bureaucrats views them as administrative functionaries, lacking motivation or resources for innovation, this new perspective recognizes that street-level officials' deep knowledge of a given policy domain and involved stakeholders uniquely positions these officials to advocate for policy innovations affecting the domain and its constituents. We urge scholars to take street-level policy entrepreneurship seriously and to examine questions at the frontiers of our knowledge about these entrepreneurial officials, including what motivates them, what strategies for policy advocacy they find most effective, and how their behaviors are shaped by different institutional contexts.

Digital technology is frequently used in the delivery of public services. Since not everyone has the skills or digital access required to use such digital services, street-level bureaucrats must find new ways to support citizens to be able to enhance digital inclusion. In most public settings, these new practices of digital support need to be developed in parallel with the street-level bureaucrats' ordinary assignments. This article analyses the development of street-level bureaucrats' entrepreneurial and innovative practices in promoting digital inclusion in two spheres: conventional welfare service provision and in a project-based welfare service provision initiative explicitly intended to enhance digital inclusion. The article builds on qualitative case studies in municipalities in Sweden and demonstrates that there are more openings for innovative, entrepreneurial solutions among street-level bureaucrats in the more project-based setting than in the conventional welfare services. This implies that context matters for street-level entrepreneurial approaches.

Recently, the authorities in Lagos have implemented policies progressively restricting the operation of okadas (motorcycle taxis). We analyze the enforcement of these measures through the lens of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) and street-level policy entrepreneurs (SLPEs). Doing so, we introduce two novel features into the literature. First, the extant literature focuses primarily on policies that deliver public services, whereas policies can also control proscribed behavior. We refer to these as service delivery and regulation, respectively. Second, the exercise of discretion by SLBs and SLPEs can result in both “underenforcement” and “overenforcement” of regulatory policies, the latter potentially involving breaking the law. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Lagos between 2021 and 2023, we find strong evidence of both underenforcement and overenforcement of okada bans over time, but with more overenforcement. This offers important insights conceptually for the SLPE literature and empirically to the challenges of policing urban Lagos.