Tuesday seminar: Michael Bauer
Michael Bauer from the Humboldt University in Berlin will present the paper 'Not necessarily supranationalists? Regio-crats and the European Commission'.
Photo: Humboldt University
Abstract
There has been relatively little research on administrative elite preferences regarding supranational institutions. Some ground-breaking research has shed some light on those of Commission and member state officials but we know little of the preferences of other administrative elites.
This article explores the prescriptive preferences of top regional civil servants – regio-crats – towards the role of the European Commission (what it “should” be and do). Such preferences are often either assumed away or measured through very indirect proxies. To analyse these preferences more directly, we conducted a telephone survey of over 300 senior regional administrators from 60 regions and 5 countries.
We discover that their preferences are more varied and less supranational than expected. A test of five types of explanations reveals that inter-institutional relations and region-specific characteristics are significant predictors of such preferences. Our findings shed some light on the dynamics at play between various levels of government in multi-level polities – of which the European Union is a prime example.
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