"Policy networks and the European Union"

George, Stephen. (1997) "Policy networks and the European Union". In: UNSPECIFIED, Seattle, WA. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This paper is written as an introduction to the panel on Policy Networks and European Integration at the 1997 Conference of the European Community Studies Association. It defines the way in which the term 'policy network' is used in the other papers in the panel, and indicates some ways in which the concept might be applied to the study of the European Union (EU), thus providing a framework within which the other papers can be situated. It also reviews some criticisms that have been made of the application of the concept to the study of the EU. The paper draws heavily on the work of R.A.W. Rhodes, who first developed the theoretical approach, and of John Peterson, who pioneered its application to the study of the EU. It also in parts reproduces arguments and even phrases from an earlier paper written jointly by the present author with R.A.W. Rhodes and Ian Bache (Rhodes, Bache, and George, 1996). Full acknowledgment is made of the contribution of the two co-authors of that paper, although where this paper differs from it, the changes represent the thinking only of the present author.

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