The Politics of Means and Ends: Policy Instruments in the European Union

ISBN-13: 9781409410706 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 226 str.

Bähr, Holger

Opis

Policy instruments are techniques used to implement policy goals. Subject to political conflict, they address the relationship between those who govern and those who are governed. Why do political actors choose certain policy instruments to implement policy goals? Systematically comparing policy instruments employed in the European Union's environmental and social policy, Holger Bahr develops a general theoretical framework to illustrate how policy-makers prefer different types of policy instruments depending on the respective effect they wish to have on member state governments, citizens, consumers, and producers. He argues that institutions, the politicisation of policy problems and external events constrain political actors and provide them with the opportunity to transfer their preferred policy instruments into policy outputs at the end of decision-making."

Recenzje

'Policy instruments are suddenly back in vogue again, not least in the European Union (EU) which is struggling hard to find new ways to govern complex problems without making the scale of "Brussels" greater. This book offers the first systematic comparative analysis of how and why new (and older) policy instruments are used in the two very different areas of social and environmental policy. For those who find the governance of the EU deeply puzzling, this book is a "must read".' Andrew Jordan, University of East Anglia, UK

Spis treści

Contents: Introduction; Explaining policy instruments; Comparing policy areas; European environmental policy; European social policy; Policy instruments in European environmental policy and European social policy; Conclusion; Annex; Bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Holger Bähr is a Research Assistant at the University of Konstanz, Germany