Flashcards - Bale: European Politics, 4th Edition

An observable process – ongoing and contested, more or less voluntary, but neither inevitable nor uniform – by which the policies, institutions, norms, goals and actors of the EU and/or other European countries have a perceptible and significant impact on those of individual European countries; policies, institutions, norms, goals and actors can be ‘uploaded’ to Europe, just as those from Europe are ‘downloaded’ to and by individual countries.

Refers to the fact that the allocation of resources, the delivery of services, and the making of law and policy in Europe is characterized – perhaps increasingly so – by a dispersal or diffusion of power, a multiplication of (sometimes overlapping) sites of authority and policy competence, as well as a mixture of cooperation and contestation among tiers of government that would formerly have been considered more separate and hierarchically ordered.

Splits or divisions in a society that give rise to conflicts that may well be expressed in political form – often, though not necessarily, via the formation of opposing parties representing people on either side of the split.

An equilibrium existing between states (or groups of states) when resources – especially military resources – are sufficiently evenly distributed to ensure that no single state can dominate the others. he concept was an essential part (and indeed aim) of European diplomacy and warfare from at least the seventeenth century onwards.

A country where the boundaries of the political and administrative system are presumed – rightly or wrongly – to coincide with those that contain a population with a supposedly shared culture, history and (probably) language.

The possession of which implies the ultimate right, free from external hindrance, to decide and control how a state will be run and the direction it will take.

The feeling on the part of one community within a state that they belong to a separate nation that should therefore be accorded some kind of autonomy, special rights or even independence.

Those in which regional government is really only local administration of centrally determined (and often financed) services, and where any power exercised by regional government is ultimately dependent on the consent of the central state.

Those in which territorial subnational government enjoys constitutionally guaranteed autonomy and functional competence – in other words; regional government really is government and is not simply administration under delegated authority from the centre.

Literally, the transfer of competences from national to subnational government. However, it has taken on a particular meaning in the UK, where it is used in order to make it clear that the transfer of powers is not the forerunner of federalism, let alone complete independence for Scotland and Wales.

The body of accumulated law currently in force that must apply in every member state if the EU is to function properly as a legally based and regulated community. Laws include directives (rules that must be turned into, or ‘transposed’ into, domestic law in national parliaments), regulations (which are automatically binding on all member states without any parliamentary discretion on their part as to their precise form), and the case law of the ECJ.

A label given by political scientists to the heart of government. It comprises both the political part of the executive – normally cabinet and prime minister – and its bureaucratic support, as well as key civil servants from the most important departments, ministries and intelligence chiefs. The core executive normally operates out of the national capital.

As much an ethos as a doctrine. It rests on the notion that the public sector can learn a lot from the private sector in terms of its competitive focus on efficiency, value for money and responsiveness to clients or customers. Indeed, it should actually be restructured to resemble a market wherein, ideally, the purchasers of a service are split from its providers, with managers given more autonomy but also clearer targets.

The legal process by which formerly Soviet bloc countries have tried to reveal, regulate and in some cases ban the employment in the public sector of people who worked in (or for) the repressive apparatus of the communist regime – for example as secret policemen or their informants. The scope, pace and effectiveness of the laws passed has varied between countries but does seem to have contributed at least a little to increased trust in public institutions, if not in the governments that have passed and implemented the legislation (see Horne, 2012).

Can be defined as the interaction between a characteristic problem-solving approach covering each stage of the policy cycle – initiation and formulation, implementation, evaluation and review – and a characteristic relationship between those involved, including (though not exclusively) politicians, bureaucracy and those groups affected by and/or seeking to effect change (see Richardson et al., 1982: 13).