EU compliance: Still a 'black hole'?

This paper assesses whether EU compliance is still a 'black hole', reviewing two decades of research on this topic. It is argued that the first wave of scholarship was rather eclectic in nature, suggesting numerous legal and politico-administrative explanations. The second wave focused on...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of European public policy 2005-12, Vol.12 (6), p.1103-1120
Main Author: Mastenbroek, Ellen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Area studies
Compliance
EU directives
Europe
European integration
European law
European studies
European Union
Europeanization
Implementation
Methodological Problems
Policy implementation
Policy studies
Political Science Research
Public Policy
Scholarship
States (Political Subdivisions)
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper assesses whether EU compliance is still a 'black hole', reviewing two decades of research on this topic. It is argued that the first wave of scholarship was rather eclectic in nature, suggesting numerous legal and politico-administrative explanations. The second wave focused on the goodness of fit hypothesis. As the empirical support for this hypothesis has been rather disappointing, the consensus now seems to be that domestic politics needs to enter the equation in a more explicit fashion. The current challenge is to theorize and research the exact role and effects of domestic politics on processes of compliance. In doing so, scholars are advised to pay more attention to methodological issues, such as case selection. Finally, scholarship on compliance should shed more light on the actual size of the implementation deficit, especially when it comes to application and enforcement.
ISSN:1350-1763
1466-4429
DOI:10.1080/13501760500270869