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Recalcitrance, Inefficiency, and Support for European Integration: Why Member States Do (not) Comply with European Law

Borzel, Tanja A., and Dudziak, Meike, and Hofmann, Tobias, and Panke, Diana, and Sprungk, Carina. (2007) Recalcitrance, Inefficiency, and Support for European Integration: Why Member States Do (not) Comply with European Law. In: UNSPECIFIED, Montreal, Canada. (Unpublished)

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    Abstract

    This paper seeks to explain inter-state variation in non-compliance with European law. While non-compliance has not significantly increased over time, some member states violate European law more frequently than others. In order to account for the variance observed, we draw on three prominent approaches in the compliance literature – enforcement, management, and legitimacy. In the first place, we develop a set of hypotheses for each of the three theories. We then discuss how they can be combined in theoretically consistent ways and develop three integrated models. Finally, we empirically test these models drawing on a unique and comprehensive dataset, which comprises more than 6,300 instances of member state noncompliance with European law between 1978 and 1999. The empirical findings show that the combined model of the enforcement and the management approach turns out to have the highest explanatory power. Politically powerful member states are most likely to violate European law while the best compliers are small countries with highly efficient bureaucracies. Yet, administrative capacity also matters for powerful member states. The UK and Germany are much more compliant than France and Italy, which command similar political power but whose administrations are ridden by bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption.

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    Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
    Uncontrolled Keywords: Enforcement; management.
    Subjects for non-EU documents: Countries > Italy
    Countries > France
    Countries > Germany
    EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > law & legal affairs-general (includes international law) > compliance/national implementation
    EU policies and themes > EU institutions & developments > institutional development/policy > historical development of EC (pre-1986)
    Countries > U.K.
    EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > political affairs > legitimacy
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Conference: European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2007 (10th), May 17-19, 2007
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 10 Jul 2008
    Page Range: p. 44
    Last Modified: 15 Feb 2011 17:49
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7707

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