Impact of europeanization in policy network governance pattrons

Abstract

This paper draws on the conclusions of an international research project on EU Enlargement and Multi-level Governance in European Regional and Environment Policies. The project’s main goal was twofold: first, to evaluate the impact of Europeanization of public policy on the governance structures of three traditionally unitary countries (Ireland, Portugal and Greece), and their response, in terms of learning and adaptation, to the European environment in the regional and environmental policies; and second, to identify the appropriate reforms that new member states (Poland and Hungary) should undertake, in order to facilitate the adaptation and adjustment of their public policy structures to the European environment. Focus is given to institutional formal and informal networks that sustain the policy-making process and its relation to EU policy, which were analyzed with SNA methods, namely, density, centrality and structural equivalence measures. This methodology allowed the research to identify points of resistance to change and to assess the level of expertise involved in the policy-making process and subsequently of the presence of relevant forms of governance. More centralized networks (Ireland and Poland; Portugal in regional policy; Hungary in environmental policy) were associated with the concentration of power in state actors; More dense networks (Ireland, Poland and Portugal), however, enabled better levels of informational flows and knowledge exchange. Structural equivalence revealed pattern similarities among central state actors on the one hand, and more peripheral ones on the other. On the basis of these findings, a new research program is proposed to address unanswered questions, with recourse to more sophisticated SNA methods.