Policy Making and Resistance of Norms in the European Union - Book Report/Review Example

Policy Making and Resistance of Norms in the European Union European Union is a geo-political unit founded upon many treaties covering the European continent. It has expanded from a 6 member state to a 28 member state due to the various treaties. The main idea of development of Europe depended on a supranational base which was to make war unthinkable and materially impossible and to reinforce democracy. In this paper my goal is to critically analyze European Union in terms of policy development and the norms that were resisted through review of the articles; Policy making in the European Union by Alex Warleigh-Lack and Ralph and Resisting EU norms. A Framework for analysis by Sabine and Fabien. The decision making process in the EU is a complicated process. As for now 27 different national governments must be involved in the process. The European Commission, the European parliament and the EU’s supranational political institution play a very vital role in the decision making process. The policy decisions are complicated, new treaties and setting of strategic EU directions are approved by the member states only and European Council respectively. There are some policy areas that stay almost entirely national competencies for example tax. The formal procedures used to make ‘day-to-day decisions by the EU lead to changes in the balance of power over time and in the policy areas between the national and EU levels and between the EU institutions. The pillar system structure was flexible and allowed policy issues to be shifted from one pillar to another as members became accustomed to cooperation in an issue, it was an excellent but limited example of such a variation because in pillar one there is still difference in the power distribution e.g.the EU still has strong powers in competition policy even today but the EP has a small role in the same policy area where the power is in the hands of the Commission in the form of the original Community method. In some policies like the environmental policy, the EU competence has expanded from zero to impressive and most of the policy decisions are made using the qualified majority voting in Council which requires that only a certain portion of the member state need to accept a measure in order to obtain support of the Council as a whole and the codecision, thus giving the EP a significant degree of power where forma procedures are applied. But there is also an application of the new modes of governance in this policy. When the new modes of governance are used in making decisions, it is used in various ways. The best and most preferred way is the open method of coordination that takes place in the areas that fall within the competence of the member states such as employment, education, youth and training. The decision and policy making in the EU will still remain complex but it is and may remain like this because the member states prefer it that way. The confirmation of the Lisbon Treaty will lead to the alteration of balance between the EU institutions in some policy areas with a development that will encourage the use of qualified majority voting in Council and addition of the range of policies that are subject to codecision. All these will lead to the increment of EP’s role and influence on the matter and standardization of power balance between the Council, Commission and EP but it will hinder the national governments to use their sanction. The new treaty will also introduce a new role for the national parliaments in the EU decision making. It would encourage an alliance between half the national parliaments and the Council or the EP to hinder a new piece of EU legislation on the grounds of subsidiarity. This will eventually improve the EU’s legitimacy and encourage the involvement of the national parliamentarians in the EU legislation. The member states are the ones who are to choose the best method to use in the process of policy making, the formal policy making process methods offer different power balance but its acknowledgement depends on the state members choices. As discussed above, the EU’s system of governance has been moderately transformed since the 1990s. The traditional Community method that was based on the institutional balance, the importance of supranational institutions and the EU law were faced with a lot of challenges an oppositions which brought about the introduction of some soft laws but did not replace the hard laws entirely. The resistance to the EU norms has an extensive history in the European Union.The argument about the resistance to norms article is viewed in two ways; one is that the development of EU governance leads to the systematic study of resistance to EU norms beyond the present concentration on non-compliance with legal norms and the other is that the EU governance develops a typology of the instruments of resistance used by domestic actors to object to the implementation of the EU norms. Since the early 1990s therehave been various forms of opposition and resistance to norms and the EU policy makers responded to these oppositions by introducing mechanisms whoseaim was simplifying EU’s governance by making it more flexible and less formal. They used the ‘new modes of governance’ that used coordination mechanisms instead of coercive tools. Hard law lead to non-compliance attitude while soft law makes the actors comply with the goal through learning process that leads to the transformation of the actors’ inclinations. “Resistance is the active and passive opposition to the transportation and implementation of European norms” (Sabine et al 4). It takes different forms of protest and attitudes for example dodging norms through action or inaction or adjusting to norms.Compliance is the process where the actor’s attitudes are in line with the norms or a specific rule. Although the national governments contribute to the making of the international norms, it does not necessarily mean that they comply withit. Members of the state are subject to an integrative pressure meaning they have to comply with EU laws. Actors who oppose soft laws only refer to legislative, regulatory and constitutional instruments while those opposing the hard law use a wide range of instruments of resistance. The instruments help us identify the actors whose instruments to understand their rationality, interests, diversity in cognitive framesthat are play during the resistance process. Through these instruments we are able to understand the power relations between the actors and their influence applied by their resources and cognitive nature. Non compliance is not a problem that needs to be solved. If you view it that way you encourage normative biasness which makes the European political system inefficient. But analyzing non-compliance through the instruments helps explain the political demands that go through the same instruments. Studying these instruments of resistance results in analyzing the political processes ate the domestic and European level in terms of de-politicization since the instruments allow the querying of the prominent analytical frame. It involves analyzing one specific administrative form instead of another, one specific expertise instead of another among others. Finally the resistance to norms developed in the European level influence norm in EU level, this opens paths to public policy reforms which are made visible through the use of instruments of resistance which allow for a dynamic understanding of the European governance. Works cited Warleigh-Lack, Alex, and Ralf Drachenberg. 'Spillover In A Soft Policy Era? Evidence From The Open Method Of Co-Ordination In Education And Training'. Journal of European Public Policy 18.7 (2011): 999-1015. Web. Saurugger, Sabine, and Fabien Terpan. 'Resisting ‘New Modes Of Governance’: An Agency-Centred Approach'. Comp Eur Polit (2015): n. pag. Web. Read More