EUROGOV
No. N-07-01
Manuele Citi and Martin Rhodes
New Modes of Governance in the EU: Common Objectives versus
National Preferences
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Published: January 16,
2007
Abstract
The emergence in the European Union of new modes of governance
(NMG) such as the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) has produced
an enormous literature that falls into four broad categories:
a theoretical approach seeks to explain why such methods emerged
and locates them in existing theories of European integration,
policy-making and institutional change; a strongly normative
approach extols the non-hierarchical, deliberative virtues
of NMG and ‘soft’ law and prioritizes the potential
of the OMC as a font of ‘social learning’; a more
empirical approach assesses new modes in operation across
different policy areas and countries; and a more critical
approach assesses the claims made on the OMC’s behalf
as an effective instrument of policy making. Apart from our
concern to critically review this literature, our aim is also
to focus in on one of its greatest deficiencies: the absence,
hitherto, of a comprehensive, multi-level framework for analysis,
capable of specifying the conditions under which OMC practices
are likely to produce a convergence of member state policies
on common objectives. In doing so we also bring into our account
a parallel literature – on policy diffusion and learning
– that is frequently referred to by studies of the OMC
and other new modes of governance but is rarely integrated
systematically into their analysis.
Keywords:
Europeanization, open coordination, governance, policy learning,
policy diffusion, deliberative democracy
Manuele Citi
– European University Institute
e-mail: Manuele.Citi@eui.eu
Martin Rhodes – Graduate School
of International Studies, University of Denver
e-mail: Martin.Rhodes@du.edu
© 2007 Manuele Citi
and Martin Rhodes
Citing this EUROGOV
paper:
Citi, Manuele and Martin Rhodes. 2007. New Modes of Governance
in the EU: Common Objectives versus National Preferences.
European Governance Papers (EUROGOV) No. N-07-01,
http://www.connex-network.org/eurogov/pdf/egp-newgov-N-07-01.pdf
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