Samenvatting European Governance
The basics of political entities and (EU) administrative systems:
● Regime: The rules and norms that lie at the basis of a system of government.
● Institution: A formal or informal organization or practice with a political purpose or effect,
marked by durability and internal complexity.
● Treaty: An agreement under international law entered into between sovereign states and/or
international organizations, committing all parties to shared obligations, with any failure to
meet them being considered a breach of the agreement.
● Constitution: A (set of) document(s) that sets out the general rules by which a state is
governed. It has the following key qualities:
- Codified: Arranged as an organized legal code in a single document, and supported
by a constitutional court.
- Superior: It invalidates conflicting ordinary laws.
- Justiciable: There are procedures in place by which its superiority can be
implemented.
- Entrenched: Amending the constitution is more difficult than passing ordinary laws.
● Constitutionalization: The process by which rules and treaties have been agreed that have
conferred a constitutional status on the EU without the agreement of a formal constitution.
The sources of constitutional norms in the EU are:
- Treaty articles: The fundamental source on the golas and purposes of the EU and the
responsibilities of its institutions, outlining general principles as well as more detailed
rules and obligations.
- EU law: Laws adopted by the EU turn treaty articles into specific obligations, and
clarify the reach of its institutions, the responsibilities of its member states, and the
rights of its citizens.
- Judgements of the European Court of Justice: The rulings by EU courts that have
helped clarify the meaning and the reach of the treaties and the EU law.
● Charter of Fundamental Rights: Document adopted in 2000 that collected together
statement on human rights outlined in other EU agreements.
● Human Convention on Human Rights (ECHR): Agreement drawn up by the
Council of Europe in 1950 that provided the right of petition for citizens.
● Polity: An organized and structured system for the government and administration of a
political unit.
● Political system: The accumulation of interactions and organizations through which a society
reaches and successfully enforces collective decisions.
● Government: The institutions and officials that make up the formal structure by which states
or other administrative units are managed and directed.
● Governance: An arrangement by which decisions, laws, and policies are made without the
existence of formal institutions of government.
● Legislative function: The part of the governing process that is concerned with making laws,
that is typically the responsibility of the legislature.
● State: A legal and political arrangement through which all large-scale political communities
are organized, combining government, population, legitimacy, territory and sovereignty. It has
the following features:
- Government: States have governments with the recognized authority to administer
and to represent the state in dealings with other governments.
- Population: States contain populations, whose needs and rights lie at the foundation
of the work and the legal existence of states.
- Legitimacy: The authority of a state and its institutions is recognized by the
inhabitants of the territory and by the governments of other states.
- Territory: States operate within fixed and populated territories marked out by legal
boundaries.
, - Sovereignty: The institutions of the state have a monopoly over the expression of
legal and political power within its borders.
● Nation: A community whose members identify with each other based on shared language,
culture, territory, religion, myths and symbols.
● Federation: An administrative system in which authority is divided
between two or more levels of government, each with independent
powers and responsibilities.
→ Interactions between different levels are as shown on the right.
● Quasi-federation: An arrangement by which powers are divided between central and
regional government, resulting in some of the features of federalism without the creation of a
formal federal structure.
● Confederation: An administrative system in which independent states
come together for reasons of security, efficiency or mutual
convenience, retaining the powers they consider best reserved to
themselves and working together throug joint institutions on matters
best dealt with together.
→ Interactions between different levels are as shown on the right.
● Unitary administration: An administrative system in which there may be multiple levels of
government, but all real power lies in the hands of the national government.
● Multilevel governance: An administrative system in which power is distributed and shared
horizontally and vertically among many different levels of government, with considerable
interaction among the parts. It’s main features are (Peters and Pierre, 2004):
- It is about governance, not government;
- It refers to a particular kind of relationship that is nog hierarchically ordered;
- It applies to a negotiated order rather than one defined by formalized legal
frameworks;
- It is often conceived as a political game.
● Political party: A group identified by name and ideology that fields candidates at elections in
order to win public office and control government.
● Customs union: An arrangement under which all tariffs, duties and other restrictions on trade
among participating countries are removed, and a common external tariff is agreed to that all
goods coming into the union from third parties are subject to the same costs.
The administrative system of the EU:
Reasons for calling the EU a confederation Reasons for calling the EU a federation
● There is no EU constitution. The EU is ● The EU has treaties that are the functional
based on treaties designed and developed equivalent of a constitution, which distributes
by intergovernmental conferences; powers between European institutions and
● The EU is a union of states. It has member states;
administrative institutions, but it is a system ● There are (at least) two systems of law in
of governance rather than a system of the EU: European and national;
government; ● The EU has a separate
● The interests of EU citizens are represented executive/bureaucracy, legislature and court
indirectly through their governments; which coexist with their national equivalents;
● The EU member states are distinct political ● The EU has its own European Parlement
units, with their own policies and the ability and European Central Bank;
to sign their own bilateral treaties; ● The EU institutions have a high level of
● Most citizens have a higher sense of authority over agricultural, environmental,
allegiance towards their national rather than competition, trade and monetary policy;
EU symbols; ● The EU member states are increasingly
● The EU is a voluntary association, with their defined in relation to their EU partners and
members being free to leave if they wish. Europeans increasingly identify with Europe
and European priorities.
, Approaches to understanding the EU
Approach (and theories/models) Assumption
International organization The institutions of the EU have little or no autonomy, and
(International relations) the EU makes its most important decisions through
negotiations and bargains among overnements.
Regional integration association The EU is comparable with other regional blocs.
(International relations
Unique The EU emerged out of a unique set of circumstances,
has unique qualities and goals, might never be replicated
elsewhere, and might nog even have emerged if the
process of integration ahd started much later than it did.
Political system in its own right The EU is a European superstate, and its structure and
(Comparative politics, federalism, operating principles can be compared with conventional
confederalism) states.
Hybrid The EU is a mix of all of the above.
Principles contained in EU treaties:
● Competence: Term used to indicate responbility or authority in an area of public policy, and
is used to describe the area of policy for wich the EU is responsible.
● Conferral: Principle which holds that the EU can act only where is has been given authority
by the member states to achieve objectives set out in the treaties, and that any areas of
competence not specifically listed in the treaties defaults to the member states.
● Subsidiarity: Principle that administration in an organization, state or other entity should be
taken at the lowest practical level, barring the EU from acting in areas outside its exclusive
competence if the action can be better taken by member states.
● Proportionality: Principle that establishes that the EU should no go beyond taking action
needed to achieve the objectives of the treaties.
The basics of political entities and (EU) administrative systems:
● Regime: The rules and norms that lie at the basis of a system of government.
● Institution: A formal or informal organization or practice with a political purpose or effect,
marked by durability and internal complexity.
● Treaty: An agreement under international law entered into between sovereign states and/or
international organizations, committing all parties to shared obligations, with any failure to
meet them being considered a breach of the agreement.
● Constitution: A (set of) document(s) that sets out the general rules by which a state is
governed. It has the following key qualities:
- Codified: Arranged as an organized legal code in a single document, and supported
by a constitutional court.
- Superior: It invalidates conflicting ordinary laws.
- Justiciable: There are procedures in place by which its superiority can be
implemented.
- Entrenched: Amending the constitution is more difficult than passing ordinary laws.
● Constitutionalization: The process by which rules and treaties have been agreed that have
conferred a constitutional status on the EU without the agreement of a formal constitution.
The sources of constitutional norms in the EU are:
- Treaty articles: The fundamental source on the golas and purposes of the EU and the
responsibilities of its institutions, outlining general principles as well as more detailed
rules and obligations.
- EU law: Laws adopted by the EU turn treaty articles into specific obligations, and
clarify the reach of its institutions, the responsibilities of its member states, and the
rights of its citizens.
- Judgements of the European Court of Justice: The rulings by EU courts that have
helped clarify the meaning and the reach of the treaties and the EU law.
● Charter of Fundamental Rights: Document adopted in 2000 that collected together
statement on human rights outlined in other EU agreements.
● Human Convention on Human Rights (ECHR): Agreement drawn up by the
Council of Europe in 1950 that provided the right of petition for citizens.
● Polity: An organized and structured system for the government and administration of a
political unit.
● Political system: The accumulation of interactions and organizations through which a society
reaches and successfully enforces collective decisions.
● Government: The institutions and officials that make up the formal structure by which states
or other administrative units are managed and directed.
● Governance: An arrangement by which decisions, laws, and policies are made without the
existence of formal institutions of government.
● Legislative function: The part of the governing process that is concerned with making laws,
that is typically the responsibility of the legislature.
● State: A legal and political arrangement through which all large-scale political communities
are organized, combining government, population, legitimacy, territory and sovereignty. It has
the following features:
- Government: States have governments with the recognized authority to administer
and to represent the state in dealings with other governments.
- Population: States contain populations, whose needs and rights lie at the foundation
of the work and the legal existence of states.
- Legitimacy: The authority of a state and its institutions is recognized by the
inhabitants of the territory and by the governments of other states.
- Territory: States operate within fixed and populated territories marked out by legal
boundaries.
, - Sovereignty: The institutions of the state have a monopoly over the expression of
legal and political power within its borders.
● Nation: A community whose members identify with each other based on shared language,
culture, territory, religion, myths and symbols.
● Federation: An administrative system in which authority is divided
between two or more levels of government, each with independent
powers and responsibilities.
→ Interactions between different levels are as shown on the right.
● Quasi-federation: An arrangement by which powers are divided between central and
regional government, resulting in some of the features of federalism without the creation of a
formal federal structure.
● Confederation: An administrative system in which independent states
come together for reasons of security, efficiency or mutual
convenience, retaining the powers they consider best reserved to
themselves and working together throug joint institutions on matters
best dealt with together.
→ Interactions between different levels are as shown on the right.
● Unitary administration: An administrative system in which there may be multiple levels of
government, but all real power lies in the hands of the national government.
● Multilevel governance: An administrative system in which power is distributed and shared
horizontally and vertically among many different levels of government, with considerable
interaction among the parts. It’s main features are (Peters and Pierre, 2004):
- It is about governance, not government;
- It refers to a particular kind of relationship that is nog hierarchically ordered;
- It applies to a negotiated order rather than one defined by formalized legal
frameworks;
- It is often conceived as a political game.
● Political party: A group identified by name and ideology that fields candidates at elections in
order to win public office and control government.
● Customs union: An arrangement under which all tariffs, duties and other restrictions on trade
among participating countries are removed, and a common external tariff is agreed to that all
goods coming into the union from third parties are subject to the same costs.
The administrative system of the EU:
Reasons for calling the EU a confederation Reasons for calling the EU a federation
● There is no EU constitution. The EU is ● The EU has treaties that are the functional
based on treaties designed and developed equivalent of a constitution, which distributes
by intergovernmental conferences; powers between European institutions and
● The EU is a union of states. It has member states;
administrative institutions, but it is a system ● There are (at least) two systems of law in
of governance rather than a system of the EU: European and national;
government; ● The EU has a separate
● The interests of EU citizens are represented executive/bureaucracy, legislature and court
indirectly through their governments; which coexist with their national equivalents;
● The EU member states are distinct political ● The EU has its own European Parlement
units, with their own policies and the ability and European Central Bank;
to sign their own bilateral treaties; ● The EU institutions have a high level of
● Most citizens have a higher sense of authority over agricultural, environmental,
allegiance towards their national rather than competition, trade and monetary policy;
EU symbols; ● The EU member states are increasingly
● The EU is a voluntary association, with their defined in relation to their EU partners and
members being free to leave if they wish. Europeans increasingly identify with Europe
and European priorities.
, Approaches to understanding the EU
Approach (and theories/models) Assumption
International organization The institutions of the EU have little or no autonomy, and
(International relations) the EU makes its most important decisions through
negotiations and bargains among overnements.
Regional integration association The EU is comparable with other regional blocs.
(International relations
Unique The EU emerged out of a unique set of circumstances,
has unique qualities and goals, might never be replicated
elsewhere, and might nog even have emerged if the
process of integration ahd started much later than it did.
Political system in its own right The EU is a European superstate, and its structure and
(Comparative politics, federalism, operating principles can be compared with conventional
confederalism) states.
Hybrid The EU is a mix of all of the above.
Principles contained in EU treaties:
● Competence: Term used to indicate responbility or authority in an area of public policy, and
is used to describe the area of policy for wich the EU is responsible.
● Conferral: Principle which holds that the EU can act only where is has been given authority
by the member states to achieve objectives set out in the treaties, and that any areas of
competence not specifically listed in the treaties defaults to the member states.
● Subsidiarity: Principle that administration in an organization, state or other entity should be
taken at the lowest practical level, barring the EU from acting in areas outside its exclusive
competence if the action can be better taken by member states.
● Proportionality: Principle that establishes that the EU should no go beyond taking action
needed to achieve the objectives of the treaties.
