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21. The Rule of Law in Independent Kosovo

Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
More than two years after declaring independence, Kosovo struggles with uneven rule of law and a weak justice system that is failing its citizens. The police, public prosecutors and courts are erratic performers, prone to political interference and abuse of office. Organised crime and corruption are widespread and growing. Realising that prosperity, relations with the European Union (EU) and affirmation as an independent state depend on the rule of law, the government has taken important steps, replacing key officials and passing long-delayed reforms. But critical weaknesses remain, notably in the courts, and the government, supported by the international community, must act swiftly to curtail them.
Topic:
Government and Governance
Political Geography:
Europe, Kosovo, and Balkans

22. Just and Durable Peace by Piece European Union 7 th Framework Programme

Author:
Olga Martin-Ortega, Chandra Lekha Sriram, and Johanna Herman
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre on Human Rights in Conflict
Abstract:
Following the end of violent conflicts, whether by military victory or negotiated settlement, international actors such as the European Union and the United Nations play an increasing role in peacebuilding, through a range of security, governance, and development activities. These may or may not be mandated by a peace agreement or other formal settlement, and may or may not follow or work in tandem with a peacekeeping mission. International, regional, national, and local actors may work in a more or less collaborative, or coherent fashion. Nonetheless, many of the key challenges of peacebuilding remain the same, and a familiar set of policies and strategies have emerged in contemporary practice to address these. Chief among the challenges of contemporary peacebuilding is that of addressing demands for some form of accountability, often termed transitional justice (discussed in section 3). However, as this guidance paper explains, the demands of transitional justice and its relation to broader peacebuilding activities, involve not just decisions about accountability, but a complex set of policy and institutional choices about security and governance as well. Thus, this guidance paper examines peacebuilding and transitional justice as a set of linked policies and strategies regarding not just accountability, but security sector reform (SSR), disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants, and development of the rule of law.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Political Violence, Government, Peace Studies, United Nations, and War
Political Geography:
Europe

23. Soft Censorship: How Governments Around the Globe Use Money to Manipulate the Media

Author:
Don Podesta
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges the whole countryside and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within.” Typically, authoritarian regimes exert control over what can and cannot be published or broadcast by requiring news content to be submitted to a censor prior to publication, by seizing control of media outlets or by intimidating or arresting journalists and media company owners. In many countries, censorship of the news media now manifests itself in far more subtle ways, phenomena sometimes referred to collectively as “soft censorship.” This report explores the spread of these indirect means of censorship and examines possible remedies that might be employed to attack the problem.
Topic:
Corruption, Government, Politics, and Mass Media
Political Geography:
Europe

24. Staatlichkeit und Governance im Zeitalter der europäischen Expansion. Verwaltungsstrukturen und Herrschaftsinstitutionen in den britischen und französischen Kolonialimperien

Author:
Dominik Nagl and Marion Stange
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
Strukturell „begrenzte Staatlichkeit“ und nicht staatszentrierte Modi des Regierens sind keine Phänomene, die erst seit dem ausgehenden 20. Jahrhundert zu beobachten sind. Aus diesem Grund plädiert dieses Working Paper für die Übertragung des Governance-Begriffs auf vor- und frühmoderne Gesellschaften. Anknüpfend an die neuere Diskussion um frühneuzeitliche Staatlichkeit steht hier nicht die mehr oder weniger monolithische Sicht auf einen sich mit Macht durchsetzenden monarchisch-absolutistischen Staat im Vordergrund, als vielmehr die Vielfalt staatlicher Dynamiken und der daran beteiligten Akteure. Das Working Paper fragt daher nach den historisch kontingenten Entwicklungspfaden zentralisierter Herrschaftsausübung. Hierdurch soll insbesondere die Heterogenität dieses Entwicklungsprozesses beleuchtet werden, der durch eine Ungleichzeitigkeit von nebeneinander bestehenden traditionellen und neueren Regierungs- und Verwaltungsstrukturen sowie durch immer wiederkehrende Prozesse der Aushandlung von Autorität gekennzeichnet ist.
Topic:
Government, Sovereignty, Political Theory, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
Europe

25. Diffusing (Inter-) Regionalism: The EU as a Model of Regional Integration

Author:
Thomas Risse and Tanja A. Börzel
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
Abstract:
The European Union (EU) perceives itself as a model for regional integration, which it seeks to diffuse by actively promoting the development of genuine (intra-) regional economic and political cooperation, the building of issue-related regimes, and the creation of joint institutions for consultation and decision-making in its neighbourhood and beyond as well as between the world regions and the EU.
Topic:
Globalization, Government, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

26. Visits of Sovereignty and the articulation of the national and the local in France and Germany on the eve of World War I

Author:
Nicolas Mariot
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Political Sociology
Abstract:
This paper seeks to explore the problems and potentialities of asymmetrical historical comparison by examining visits by heads of State to the provinces in Germany and France on the eve of WW I. This act of political legitimisation and representation is analysed through the lens of the practical organization of the event understood as an administrative routine, thereby bringing into question many of the categories routinely mobilised to describe and to oppose two models of national integration.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and War
Political Geography:
Europe, France, and Germany

27. European Games Institutional Innovation: The Making of Eurojust (1996-2004)

Author:
Michel Mangenot
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Political Sociology
Abstract:
Eurojust is the new judiciary co-operation unit of the European Union. This article analyses the decision-making process behind its creation, explained in terms of 'institutional games'. The establishment of Eurojust illustrates the specificities of European institutional configurations and the interactions occurring in Brussels among officials, judges and ministers. Moreover, it elucidates the important role of the leadership of the General Secretariat of the Council, and the socialisation and specialisation of a group with a high level of intellectual resources, willing to participate to the 'noble' task of institutional innovation. This article defines the determining factors of intense interinstitutional competition, where the Commission and OLAF adhere to autonomous and parliamentary principles. Furthermore, it takes into account the specific work undertaken by the Presidency (or Presidencies), as well as the decisive role of the Intergovernmental Conference, which, through the means of a high level of decision-making, enables specific moves to be made in the games.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Government, International Law, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Europe

28. Legitimacy in the Multilevel European Polity

Author:
Fritz W. Scharpf
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
In order to be simultaneously effective and liberal, governments must normally be able to count on voluntary compliance – which, in turn, depends on the support of socially shared legitimacy beliefs. In Western constitutional democracies, such beliefs are derived from the distinct but coexistent traditions of “republican” and “liberal” political philosophy. When judged by these criteria, the European Union – if considered by itself – appears as a thoroughly liberal polity which, however, lacks all republican credentials. But this view (which seems to structure the debates about the “European democratic deficit”) ignores the multilevel nature of the European polity, where the compliance of citizens is requested, and needs to be legitimated by member states – whereas the Union appears as a “government of governments” which is entirely dependent on the voluntary compliance of its member states. What matters primarily, therefore, is the compliance-legitimacy relationship between the Union and its member states – which, however, is normatively constrained by the basic compliance-legitimacy relationship between member governments and their constituents. Given the high consensus requirements of European legislation, member governments could and should be able to assume political responsibility for European policies in which they had a voice, and to justify them in “communicative discourses” in the national public space. This is not necessarily true of “non-political” policy choices imposed by the European Court of Justice. By enforcing its “liberal” program of liberalization and deregulation, the ECJ may presently be undermining the “republican” bases of member-state legitimacy. Where this is the case, open non-compliance is a present danger, and political controls of judicial legislation may be called for.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Government, Politics, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Europe

29. Italy: the uneasy co-existence of different social models

Author:
Marino Regini and Sabrina Colombo
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
The “European social model” includes a welfare regime with generous social expenditure; high employment or income protection; a well-developed system of industrial relations; and involvement of social partners in policymaking. Within the Italian social model, however, one can find three major dividing lines. The first one stems from the coexistence of different models in different areas of the country. Second, an occupation-based principle in pensions and in unemployment benefits coexists with a citizenship-based one in health and education. Finally, core workers enjoy high job and income security, whereas outsiders are highly dependent on the market. These three dividing lines substantially endanger the legitimacy and social acceptance of the Italian social model: each of them profoundly affects the perceptions of workers and citizens, leading to widespread criticism of even those aspects that clearly benefit them and, at the same time, to fierce opposition to the several attempts at reforming it.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Political Economy, and Privatization
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

30. The External Dimension of EU Justice and Home Affairs: Tools, Processes, Outcomes

Author:
Thierry Balzacq
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:
This working document offers a conceptual framework for understanding the processes underpinning the external dimension of EU Justice and Home Affairs (ED-JHA). Practically, it defines how the export of JHA principles and norms inform the geopolitical ambitions of the EU, i.e. the use of space for political purposes, or the control and management of people, objects and movement. The author begins by investigating how the ENP reconfigures the ED-JHA, and then goes on to discuss various conceptual stances on governance, specifically institutionalism, constructivism, and policy instruments. To conclude he traces the evolution of this external dimension, emphasising, whenever possible, its continuities and bifurcations. Overall, the aim is to ascertain the extent to which conceptual designs clarify or advance our knowledge of the contents and rationales of the ED-JHA.
Topic:
Government and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe