Governance in an Expanded Multi-level System

Research question/goal: 

This project examines how the embedment of the EU in international trading systems leads to institutional changes of the EU. In empirical terms, the study analyses how the relations between the EU and WTO change the patterns of governance within the EU. The research questions are (1) What kind of institutional change could be observed due to the international embedment? (2) How could we explain this impact? What are the mechanisms of change? (3) What does it mean for the development of the EU-system as such? The project shows that (1) embeddedness does not only effect the formal organisation of the decision-making process. It includes also routines, guiding ideas and concepts of legitimate order. (2) These changes could be explained by the mechanisms of adaptational pressure, involvement and supply. In addition the institutional self-interest of the central EU institutions like the Commission played a necessary role. (3) As a result of these changes the EU-system developed in a more centralised way toward further integration.

Fact sheet

Funding: 
DFG
Duration: 
2001 to 2004
Status: 
completed
Data Sources: 
documents, interviews
Geographic Space: 
European Union

Publications

Books

Knodt, Michèle (2005): Regieren im erweiterten europäischen Mehrebenensystem. Internationale Einbettung der EU in die WTO. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. [Regieren in Europa; 10] more
Kohler-Koch, Beate, Thomas Conzelmann and Michèle Knodt (2004): Europäische Integration - Europäisches Regieren. Wiesbaden: VS, Verl. für Sozialwissenschaften. [Grundwissen Politik; 34] more
Kohler-Koch, Beate, Thomas Conzelmann and Michèle Knodt (2004): Europäische Integration – Europäisches Regieren (Chinesische Übersetzung). Beijing: Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences. more
Knodt, Michèle, and Sebastiaan Princen (Eds.) (2003): Understanding the European Union's external relations. London: Routledge. [Routledge ECPR studies in European political science; 29] more
Jachtenfuchs, Markus, and Michèle Knodt (Eds.) (2002): Regieren in internationalen Institutionen. Opladen: Leske + Budrich. more
Jachtenfuchs, Markus, and Beate Kohler-Koch (Eds.) (2002): Verfassungspolitik in der Europäischen Union. Mannheim: MZES Publikation. more