SINGLEMARKETS The Politics of European and American Single-Market Governance

• Block, Elena Beatriz Escalante & Fjørtoft, Trym Nohr (2026). Softening the oligarchy: the normalization of Big Tech power. Science as Culture. ISSN 0950-5431. s. 16–16. doi: 10.1080/09505431.2026.2716724. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Moland, Martin; Bach, Tobias; Jacobs, Nicholas & Parsons, Craig Alexander (2026). New or old politics? Understanding public preferences for the EU single market. European Political Science Review. ISSN 1755-7739. doi: 10.1017/s1755773926100526. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Despite its place at the core of EU integration, support for the EU’s single market is under-investigated by European public opinion scholars. This paper uses novel survey data from eight EU member states to compare how utilitarian concerns, postmaterialist values and national identities shape popular views of the EU’s single market. Focusing on the freedom of movement for goods, workers, and services, we find that postmaterialist attitudes more consistently predict attitudes towards the single market than economic positioning. We thus contribute to the literature on attitudes towards European integration by showing that postmaterialist values and national identities matter not only for views of highly politicized issues like migration, but also for “bread-and-butter” policies like single market governance. These results are particularly surprising given that we would expect utilitarian expectations to be particularly prominent for these kinds of economic policies.

• Parsons, Craig Alexander & Katarzyna, Andrejuk, (2026). Introduction: Europe’s single market in US perspective. Comparative European Politics. ISSN 1472-4790. 24. doi: 10.1057/s41295-026-00482-7. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  After receding from the headlines for a long time, the Single Market has returned to the forefront of the European Union agenda. The project to pursue the “four freedoms” of goods, services, labor and capital remains over shadowed by calls to develop new EU capacities for strategic autonomy in security and economic affairs, but it is once again widely praised as a key tool—if still a contested one—to promote European competitiveness and power. This special issue assembles a group of experts to speak to these discussions by illuminating aspects of the Single Market’s development and current functioning. Two distinctive moves frame its contributions. One is the use of comparative perspective, setting EU features alongside those of the other vast internal market of the Western world—the United States. Not only does comparison help us to highlight what stands out about EU economic governance, it offers some insight into the evolving US politics that are a crucial external condition for Europe’s choices. The other is a focus on normative goals and trade-off s in internal-market governance. Any project to promote multi-jurisdictional market integration raises major issues about the promotion and distribution of economic gains, the provision of effective democratic government, and respect and tolerance for diverse populations. Using leverage from similarities and differences with the US, we highlight some of the normative principles at work in Europe’s Single Market. This introduction frames key normative trade-off s around the governance of internal openness in multilevel systems, makes the case for the EU-US comparison about them, and surveys the contributing articles on harmonization and regulatory competition, digital markets, competition policy, commercial and personal mobility, and the delegation of democratic authority.

• Fjørtoft, Trym Nohr (2026). Delegation without a coherent nation: non-majoritarianism in EU and US single market governance. Comparative European Politics. ISSN 1472-4790. 24. doi: 10.1057/s41295-026-00488-1. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Non-majoritarian institutions like independent agencies and central banks play a significant role in market governance in the EU, the U.S., and everywhere. For many scholars, however, delegation to non-majoritarian institutions requires the embedding in a single, coherent democratic people in order to be legitimate. This view underlies many of the strongest normative critiques of the EU, where the substantial powers of non-majoritarian institutions like the Commisison, the European Central Bank, and many decentralized agencies enjoy no such justification. I argue that this common normative account relies on an unsustainable notion of cultural and political coherence as a prerequisite for legitimacy. In its place, I defend a theory of legitimacy which builds on robust claims to the common good, expertise, and value inputs—all authorized and controlled by thinner democratic procedures. Using the example of single-market governance in the EU and the U.S., I show that legitimacy assessments which presuppose strong cultural and political coherence overstate the differences between the two polities.

• Fjørtoft, Trym Nohr (2026). Technical Legitimacy. Political Studies. ISSN 0032-3217. doi: 10.1177/00323217251409057. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  In studies of non-majoritarian institutions, there is a widespread idea that political neutrality, epistemic authority, and technical expertise are sources of legitimacy. Empirical studies tend to find that such appeals are effective sources of legitimacy, but theorists are overwhelmingly skeptical of their normative appeal. This article’s conceptual ambition is to unify the disparate debates under the term technical legitimacy . The article’s theoretical ambition is to improve on the normative debate on technical legitimacy. Existing defenses fail to robustly satisfy the reasons that ground delegation to non-majoritarian institutions. I propose conditions for accepting technical legitimacy that are reasonably robust against counterfactuals. Technical legitimacy must meet three criteria. Institutions must promote a functionally specified common good; build on sound and undistorted expertise; and, perhaps counterintuitively, contain appropriate venues for value input.

• Jacobs, Nicholas F; Moland, Martin & Parsons, Craig Alexander (2025). Postfunctionalism across the Atlantic: The “New Politics” in European Integration and US Federalism. Publius: The Journal of Federalism. ISSN 0048-5950. 55(4), s. 702–731. doi: 10.1093/publius/pjaf037. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The European Union’s internal market was modeled in part on the United States’ national market, yet public attitudes toward market governance in the two arenas have long been understood through different theoretical lenses. In this article, we apply the postfunctionalist theory of European integration—developed to explain EU citizens’ attitudes toward supranational authority—to American federalism, testing whether cultural identity divides (GAL/TAN) shape public opinion on central market governance in the United States as they do in Europe. Using an original survey of 16,000 respondents across eight EU countries and 4,000 Americans, we find that postfunctionalist dynamics are robust in both contexts, challenging prevailing views that American attitudes toward federalism are driven primarily by Left–Right ideology or material interests. Our findings suggest that identity-based contestation over governance extends beyond the EU’s nation-state politics, requiring a broader theoretical framework to understand the intersection of culture, federalism, and economic integration across advanced democracies.

• Jacobs, Nicholas; Moland, Martin & Parsons, Craig Alexander (2025). Do Citizens Have Views about Single Market Governance? Publius: The Journal of Federalism. ISSN 0048-5950. 55(4), s. 671–701. doi: 10.1093/publius/pjaf034. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  To what degree do citizens hold structured views about the governance of openness in multi-jurisdictional markets? This article presents the results of a preregistered experiment that assesses public attribution of governmental authority with respect to five issues central to market integration. We fielded the survey in the world’s two largest single markets, the United States and the European Union (EU). Across the nine sampled countries (N = 17,304), we find that EU residents are statistically more likely to make federal or geographic distinctions than American respondents, especially in the areas of goods regulations and standardized benefits for workers. We also find that certain subgroups are more likely to favor decentralized policy approaches to single market issues: those skeptical of regulation, those who are less trusting of government, and select partisan affiliates. Europeans’ relatively greater responsiveness is most plausibly explained, we argue, as a result of institutional mobilization. The EU’s single market project has fed back on European societies to attract citizens’ attention to the EU’s core goals of cross-border openness.

• Jacobs, Nicholas F & Parsons, Craig Alexander (2025). Introduction: The Comparative Federalism of Single Markets in Europe and the United States. Publius: The Journal of Federalism. ISSN 0048-5950. 55(4), s. 593–621. doi: 10.1093/publius/pjaf046. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The two great “single markets” of the Western world are the result of market-building projects at the heart of American federalism and European integration. This special issue compares the contemporary politics of internal-market openness within these two polities. Common wisdom characterizes Europe’s project as an “incomplete” effort to imitate a wide-open US arena. But if this image is partly correct—Europe remains behind the US in market integration on the ground—it misses that the EU already has a stricter, more systematic and “complete” governing regime for internal-market openness than its supposed American model. Interstate commerce in the US encounters substantial regulatory barriers, some of recent creation, including many that the EU has removed or mitigated among its members. This introductory essay unpacks the institutional, economic, and social elements of single-market projects, surveys social–scientific expectations about how they relate, and highlights the puzzle of the transatlantic mismatch between economic integration and market governance.

• Andrejuk, Katarzyna; Fjørtoft, Trym Nohr; Parsons, Craig Alexander; Schmidt, Susanne; Smith, Andy & Trondal, Jarle (2025). American Services in European Perspective: Why Do Americans Not Care about Interstate Barriers in Construction? Publius: The Journal of Federalism. ISSN 0048-5950. 55(4), s. 732–758. doi: 10.1093/publius/pjaf027. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The European Union identifies the sector of construction services as a priority for its agenda to remove barriers to cross-border activity. Taking the EU’s efforts as a starting point, this article explores the politics of interstate barriers in construction services in the United States. To what extent do US construction firms encounter internal-border barriers like those targeted by the EU? If they do, how much business mobilization and governmental response do they elicit, and what does that suggest about American federalism more generally? We find many similar barriers inside the United States but practically no mobilization or policy attention around them. Drawing on over fifty interviews with firms, associations, and public officials, we argue that this contrast to the EU highlights two features of American federalism. Institutionally, though promoting a national market motivated the federation’s creation, that goal is nobody’s active job today. Ideationally, the distinctively American skepticism of central government limits a market-building project.

• Andrejuk, Katarzyna; Fjørtoft, Trym Nohr; Parsons, Craig Alexander; Schmidt, Susanne; Smith, Andy & Trondal, Jarle (2025). Federal Spirits: Single Markets in Goods in the United States and the European Union and the Case of Spirits Drinks. Publius: The Journal of Federalism. ISSN 0048-5950. 55(4), s. 759–786. doi: 10.1093/publius/pjaf033. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article compares the politics of internal market governance in the European Union and the United States by focusing on a shippable but highly regulated “sin” good: distilled spirits. A few generations ago, both arenas governed spirits in highly decentralized and varied ways. Over time, Europe has centralized regulation to increase market openness while the United States has seen little change. Today regulatory differences between American states create higher barriers to trade than those which persist among their European counterparts. Drawing on 102 interviews with firms, associations, and public officials, we explain this divergence by two factors: institutions and ideas. The EU’s institutional agents have encouraged market openness, including mobilizing pro-liberalization European businesses, while American firms have no similar public allies. Ideationally, European businesspeople are broadly comfortable with centralized enforcement of single market rules, while Americans view federal enforcement as unrealistic or illegitimate.

• Matthijs, Matthias & Parsons, Craig Alexander (2022). Single Market Power: How Europe Surpassed America in the Quest for Economic Integration. Foreign Affairs. ISSN 0015-7120. 101(3), s. 165–176. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Parsons, Craig Alexander (2020). The Extraordinary, Taken-for-granted Achievement of Europe's Single Market. I Jones, Erik (Red.), European Studies: Past, Present and Future. Agenda Publishing. ISSN 9781788212830. s. 88–94. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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• Rieker, Pernille; Parsons, Craig Alexander & Stave, Tyra Kristiansen (2025). The Single Market, Tariffs and Trump with Craig Parsons. doi: https:/www.sv.uio.no/arena/english/research/news-and-events/podcast/episodes/europa-arena-craig-parsons.mp3?vrtx=view-as-webpage. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  How does the flow of goods, services and people work in the US and Europe? What do people in the US and Europe think about how the internal markets are governed? And how are tariffs on trade likely to affect the two markets? In this episode, Pernille Rieker, Centre Director at ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo interviews Craig Parsons. He is professor at the University of Oregon and senior researcher at ARENA where he leads the project The Politics of European and American Single-Market Governance (SINGLEMARKETS) at ARENA.

• Fjørtoft, Trym Nohr (2024). The Politics of European and American Single-Market Governance (Europe’s development and challenges: Snapshots from ARENA’s research). Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  ARENA Center for European Studies researcher presentations during ARENA's anniversary conference

• Parsons, Craig Alexander (2024). Crossroads moment for the EU Single Market: How can Europe’s greatest achievement keep moving forward? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Parsons, Craig Alexander (2024). Transatlantic Contrasts: Single Market Governance of Spirits in the US and the EU. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Parsons, Craig Alexander; Jacobs, Nicholas & Moland, Martin (2023). Different federations, same views? Comparing US and EU popular support for a single market. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Parsons, Craig Alexander; Smith, Andy; Andrejuk, Katarzyna; Trondal, Jarle & Bach, Tobias (2023). Single Markets in Services in the United States and the European Union: The Case of Construction. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Parsons, Craig Alexander (2023). The Law and Politics of Single Market Governance in the EU and the US. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Parsons, Craig Alexander (2023). The SINGLEMARKETS project: market openness in the EU and the US. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Parsons, Craig Alexander (2023). The SINGLEMARKETS Project: Market Openness in the EU and the US. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Fjørtoft, Trym Nohr (2023). Presentation to the Delegation of the European Union to Norway on history of EU-Norway relations, EU referendums and the EEA agreement, and the SINGLEMARKETS project. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Parsons, Craig Alexander & Matthijs, Matthias (2021). How Did Europe's Single Market Surpass America's? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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