320 Politikwissenschaft
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Information flows in EU policy-making are heavily dependent on personal networks, both within the Brussels sphere but also reaching outside the narrow limits of the Belgian capital. These networks develop for example in the course of formal and informal meetings or at the sidelines of such meetings. A plethora of committees at European, transnational and regional level provides the basis for the establishment of pan-European networks. By studying affiliation to those committees, basic network structures can be uncovered. These affiliation network structures can then be used to predict EU information flows, assuming that certain positions within the network are advantageous for tapping into streams of information while others are too remote and peripheral to provide access to information early enough. This study has tested those assumptions for the case of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy for the time after 2012. Through the analysis of an affiliation network based on participation in 10 different fisheries policy committees over two years (2009 and 2010), network data for an EU-wide network of about 1300 fisheries interest group representatives and more than 200 events was collected. The structure of this network showed a number of interesting patterns, such as – not surprisingly – a rather central role of Brussels-based committees but also close relations of very specific interests to the Brussels-cluster and stronger relations between geographically closer maritime regions. The analysis of information flows then focused on access to draft EU Commission documents containing the upcoming proposal for a new basic regulation of the Common Fisheries Policy. It was first documented that it would have been impossible to officially obtain this document and that personal networks were thus the most likely sources for fisheries policy actors to obtain access to these “leaks” in early 2011. A survey of a sample of 65 actors from the initial network supported these findings: Only a very small group had accessed the draft directly from the Commission. Most respondents who obtained access to the draft had received it from other actors, highlighting the networked flow of informal information in EU politics. Furthermore, the testing of the hypotheses connecting network positions and the level of informedness indicated that presence in or connections to the Brussels sphere had both advantages for overall access to the draft document and with regard to timing. Methodologically, challenges of both the network analysis and the analysis of information flows but also their relevance for the study of EU politics have been documented. In summary, this study has laid the foundation for a different way to study EU policy-making by connecting topical and methodological elements – such as affiliation network analysis and EU committee governance – which so far have not been considered together, thereby contributing in various ways to political science and EU studies.
Diese Arbeit untersucht die Hypothese inwieweit EU/ESVP und NATO sich in einem Konkurrenzkampf befinden. Dabei werden mehrere Dimensionen beleuchtet. Der zeitliche Aspekt, der organisatorische, der ideengeschichtliche und die spezielle Situation im Politikfeld Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik. Auf Grundlage dieser Parameter wird eine Einschätzung bezüglich der aufgestellten These für die Gegenwart vorgenommen, sowie eine Strategieempfehlung für die nähere Zukunft gemacht.
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Frage, welche Auswirkung die Zunahme irregulärer Migration aus den Gebieten Afrikas südlich der Sahara in die Europäische Union (EU) auf die politischen Beziehungen der Regionen zueinander hat. Wissenschaftliche Arbeiten zu internationaler und irregulärer Migration und ihrer Auswirkung auf die Internationalen Beziehungen sind bisher die Ausnahme. Die vorliegende Arbeit leistet einen Beitrag dazu, diese Lücke zu füllen und Migration aus einer politikwissenschaftlichen Perspektive zu beleuchten. Durch eine fundierte Analyse können Politikstrategien der Afrikanischen und der Europäischen Seite aufgezeigt, die Chancen der Interessensdurchsetzung bewertet und die Wirkung der Kooperation auf die Problematik der irregulären Migration eingeschätzt werden. Die Arbeit baut auf den gängigen Theorien der Internationalen Beziehungen auf, die Hypothesen beruhen auf einer Gegenüberstellung der kooperationspolitischen Annahmen des Neorealismus und des neoliberalen Institutionalismus. Die empirische Überprüfung beruht auf einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse zugänglicher Dokumente und Verträge der EU und der African Union (AU) sowie der Westafrikanischen Regionalorganisation ECOWAS. Ergänzt wird die Dokumentenstudie um Experteninterviews mit afrikanischen Botschaftern in Berlin. Die Arbeit kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Zunahme irregulärer Migration zu einer Veränderung in der Europäisch-Afrikanischen Kooperation geführt hat. Migrationspolitik ist zu einem strategischen Bereich der EU-Außenpolitik gegenüber Afrika geworden. In der Europäischen Politik überwiegen trotz Anerkennung der entwicklungspolitischen Möglichkeiten regulärer Migration restriktive Ansätze. Diese wirken sich nachteilig auf die Afrikanischen Herkunftsländer aus und begünstigen eine weitere Zunahme irregulärer Migration. Um angemessene Politikstrategien zu entwickeln ist aufgrund einer nicht zu erwartenden Veränderung der Europäischen Politik insbesondere die Afrikanische Seite gefragt. Hier dominierte in der Vergangenheit eine kritische Haltung gegenüber Personenfreizügigkeit. Erst seit kurzem kommt es zu einer abgestimmten supranationalen Positionierung auf ECOWAS- und AU-Ebene, in der positive Wirkungen regulärer Migration anerkannt werden. Diese spiegeln sich aber bisher nicht in nationalstaatlichen Politiken wider.
The intention of this master-thesis is a critical assessment of the European Union´s (EU) approach to external democracy promotion in Morocco. The study follows a comparative approach and compares the approach pursued by the EU within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), incepted in 2004, with the approach that it had developed up until then under the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP). The comparison is done with the intention to analyse, to what degree it is justified to speak of a new impetus for democratisation through the ENP in partner countries. The analysis takes into consideration the range of possible instruments for external democracy promotion in the categories „diplomacy“, „conditionality“ and „positive instruments“. For the comparison of democracy promotion under the EMP and the ENP it is suggested to compare the implemented measures in respect to three distinct dimensions: As a first dimension, instruments of democracy promotion are analysed with respect to the focus on indirect vs. direct instruments, e.g. those which aim at establishing socio-economic preconditions favourable to successful democratisation, vs. those which immediately intervene in the processes of political reform. As a second dimension, it is asked whether there has been a shift in the democracy promotion approach on a continuum between consensual cooptation and coercive intervention. As a third dimension, finally, it is analysed whether the approach has undergone a general intensification of efforts, e.g. whether the approach to democracy promotion has become a more active one. The analysis in this master-thesis comes to the conclusion that since the inception of the ENP the EU is indeed pursuing a slightly more direct and certainly a more active approach to democracy promotion in Morocco, while no significant change can be observed in comparison to the strictly partnership-oriented and consensual approach of the EMP. It can be argued that, under the ENP, relations to Morocco have indeed become somewhat more “political”, although at the same time they are still not pro-actively oriented at a political liberalisation of the political regime. Reforms promoted by the EU in Morocco are modest and largely in line with the reform agenda of the Morrocan government itself – e.g. a still largely authoritarian monarchy. Concrete reform steps directed at an opening of the political space, which is largely reserved to the king and its administration, are neither demanded nor supported by democracy promotion instruments, also under the ENP.