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Support from below? Supranational institutions, regional élites and governance preferences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2013

Michaël Tatham  and
Michael W. Bauer
Michaël Tatham
Affiliation:
Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway E-mail: tatham.michael@gmail.com
Michael W. Bauer
Affiliation:
German University of Administrative Sciences, Germany E-mail: michael.bauer@uni-speyer.de
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Abstract

There has been little research on élite preferences regarding supranational integration. Regional élites have been particularly neglected, even though they are implementers of European policies and programmes and therefore contribute to the integration process. To bridge this gap, this article explores the preferences of top regional civil servants – regio-crats – towards one of the most prominent supranational institutions, the European Commission. We put five explanations to the test. Support in favour of a stronger, more autonomous Commission can be driven by (1) pragmatic inter-institutional alliances, (2) the domestic distribution of power, (3) benefits derived from the integration process itself, (4) identity and identification elements and (5) transactionalism. We find support for three of these explanations as inter-institutional relations, perceived benefits and region-specific identity characteristics contribute to and account for regio-crat preferences. This resonates with interest- versus value-based approaches to European Union (EU) integration and contributes towards a better understanding of the dynamics at play in integrating multi-jurisdictional polities, of which the EU is an example.

Keywords

governance preferencesmulti-jurisdictional politiesregional élitessupranationalismsupranational institutions
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , August 2014 , pp. 237 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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