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“Framing the European Commission’s Role: From Autonomy to Influence”

Cini, Michelle. (1999) “Framing the European Commission’s Role: From Autonomy to Influence”. In: UNSPECIFIED, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Unpublished)

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    Abstract

    While the application of agency theory to the EU case has explained the conditions under which supranational autonomy occurs, it fails (or rather, does not seek) to account for the conditions under which the supranational institutions influence policy outcomes. This is because it focuses exclusively on the relationship between member states and the EU institutions, ignoring other external and internal factors which may be of relevance. Yet the principal-agent model does focus our attention of the issue of supranational agency and, in the case of this paper, on the agency of the European Commission. This is important. However, there is a danger that such a focus on agency could draw attention away from the particular institutional attributes of the Commission. It is argued in this paper that an understanding of both agency and structure and the relationship between them is necessary if Commission influence is to be fully comprehended and a theory of Commission influence constructed. Hay and Wincott’s recent contribution to this debate (1998) is particularly interesting as it focuses attention on the concept of ‘strategy’ (combining and integrating notions of strategic action and strategic context), providing a useful starting-point, if not a solid theoretical base, for case-study research.

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    Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > EU institutions & developments > European Commission
    EU policies and themes > EU institutions & developments > institutional development/policy > decision making/policy-making
    Other > integration theory (see also researching and writing the EU in this section)
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Conference: European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 1999 (6th), June 2-5, 1999
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 05 May 2006
    Page Range: p. 20
    Last Modified: 15 Feb 2011 17:21
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/2243

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