Revitalizing public policy approaches to the EU: ‘territorial institutionalism’, fisheries and wine

Abstract

This article proposes a reinvestment in political sociology in general, and the concept of territory in particular, as means of renewing analysis of the policy-polity dialectic at the heart of the European Union (EU). Drawing on a sociological theory of decision-making and sectoral regulation, the foundations for a 'territorial institutionalist' approach are developed in order to study political usages of territory. Specifically, the process of the 'political assignment of authority' is examined to analyse three such usages in EU fisheries and wine: justifying frontiers of policy instruments, defining actor eligibility, politicizing/depoliticizing regulatory controversies. Overall, we argue that EU studies must re-engage in epistemological debates over policy-polity linkages in order to produce new and rigorous knowledge about European integration and its legitimization. For, as our findings suggest, these processes are not driven by the certainty of 'rational' multi-level governance, but are mediated within sectoral 'institutional orders'.

When Sector Meets Territory: The Case of European Union Wine Policy

“…Defined by Lagroye as a political activity designed to acquire 'durable legitimacy', i.e. a form of recognition founded both on 'rational' argumentation ('our power is necessary and functional') and moral imputation ('our power is right, our power is founded on common values') (1985, p. 405), legitimation is a thus an activity around which research can simultaneously study the making of institutions and the 'assignment' of power to be involved in that process (CARTER and SMITH, 2008). As Corten has underlined, 'this means renouncing attempts to define what is fundamentally legitimate in favour of discovering what is presented and perceived to be so ' (2000, p. 8).…”

Regionalization and the Transformation of Policies, Politics, and Polities in Europe

“…The evolution of regions from functional spaces to political actors is uneven and somewhat patchy across the European territory (Keating, , ). Nonetheless, it crystallizes a shift which has taken place in many countries, from a situation of ‘regions without regionalism’ to one characterized by ‘regions with regionalism’ where regional institutions are not only endowed with significant legal authority, but also capture the existing policy communities in their fields of competence (Carter and Smith, ; Keating and Wilson, ).…”

La construction politique de la commune mesure de la qualité des eaux superficielles en France : de l’équivalent-habitant au bon état (1959-2013)

“…L'image d'un droit européen univoque qui « impacterait » les acteurs nationaux est une conceptualisation balistique trompeuse qui réifie à tort les institutions nationales et communautaires (Kauppi, 2010 ;Carter et al, 2015). Les acteurs ne sont pas affectés à des niveaux de l'action publique, mais s'inscrivent dans plusieurs territoires qu'ils mobilisent pour orienter le sens de la politique et définir des autorités légitimes (Carter et Smith, 2008). Les 41 définitions contenues à l'article 2 de la DCE n'acquièrent de sens concret que par un processus d'enrôlement mutuel des acteurs pour définir des bonnes pratiques de mises en oeuvre (Barone et Bouleau, 2011 .…”