Awesti, Anil (2012) EU transport infrastructure policy, new institutionalism and types of multi-level governance : the cases of Vienna and London. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The European integration process has fundamentally changed the system of governing in Europe. No longer is European governance confined to the nation-state level, but rather involves a variety of supranational, national and sub-national actors. Nowhere has this shift been witnessed more than at the sub-national level. Sub-national authorities (SNAs) have come to play a significant role in the European Union (EU), actively engaging at various levels of the European policy-making process. Thus, any adequate understanding of European governance requires an examination of sub-national government. However, existing research fails to place SNAs at the focal point of its analysis, viewing SNAs as passive and/or reactive political actors. As a result a research space exists in which to ask the question of why and how SNAs involve themselves in EU policy-making. This is undertaken via an analysis of the Vienna city administration and Greater London Authority in the highly under-researched trans-European networks – transport (TENT) policy area. In taking such an approach, this thesis develops a new institutional understanding of multi-level governance (MLG). It is argued that the strength of MLG lies in its ability to encapsulate the reconfiguration of policy-making space in the EU. The EU’s institutions are critical to this reordering of policy-making space in that they undertake the role of ‘honey pot sites’, attracting actors and facilitating the processes of interaction that so mark MLG. By applying the analytical tools of new institutionalism to MLG, this thesis proposes a framework for understanding MLG as existing in three distinct types, varying in accordance to its rational choice, historical and sociological institutionalist guises. The three institutional types of MLG are clearly identifiable in the experiences of Vienna and London, presenting different perspectives on the emergence or not of an MLG form of policy-making in Austria and the United Kingdom. As such, attention is drawn to the key role played by SNAs in the formation of polycentric forms of governance. In doing so, this thesis highlights the importance of a SNA having a European self-identity in order to facilitate the consistent and dynamic engagement with the EU level required in order to achieve policy influence.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) J Political Science > JZ International relations
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Transportation and state, European Union, London (England) -- Politics and government, Vienna (Austria) -- Politics and government
Official Date:	September 2012
Dates:	Date Event September 2012 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Politics and International Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Sherrington, Philippa, 1968- ; Rosamond, Ben ; Grant, Wyn
Sponsors:	University of Warwick ; University of Warwick. Department of Politics and International Studies
Extent:	231 leaves
Language:	eng

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