0000000001096317
AUTHOR
Merethe Dotterud Leiren
showing 6 related works from this author
Scope of Negative Integration: A Comparative Analysis of Post, Public Transport and Port Services
2014
There is extensive literature that explains how liberalization policy deepens and widens. In the literature of European integration such reform is commonly considered to be the result of a bias towards liberalization in the treaties, thereby giving the European Commission and the European Court of Justice wide-ranging leverage to enforce such reform. However, such approaches have been criticized for being de-politicized – for failing to understand the conflicts inherent in controversial policies. It is therefore of interest to explore the scope conditions of this constitutional bias assumption in areas where liberalization policy is disputed. This article analyzes the EU decision-making pro…
The Role of Labour and Associated EU Liberalization Challenges: Insights from the Port Sector
2013
An influential argument holds that labour unions are not likely to succeed in their objectives through current European decision-making processes. In addition, the European Union has extensive leverage to introduce negative integration due to asymmetries towards liberalization in the treaties. Given such arguments it is of interest to study a case, where attempts of EU liberalization reform have failed and labour unions claim this is their victory. An in-depth analysis of the decision-making process of the proposal for a Port Directive highlights that labour unions are most influential when they are able to exploit the division of industry interests to resoundingly oppose policy change. Mor…
When trade unions succeed: Cases of blocked liberalisation in the common market
2014
Despite the generally accepted weakness of trade unions at the European Union level, an analysis of two high profile cases - the Services Directive and the Port Directive - shows that trade unions are able to mobilise effectively at the European level and, within constellations of actors, crucially impact EU decision making. In contrast to common claims that a lack of access to EU institutions makes such groups powerless, it is argued here that the exclusion of large opposing societal groups from consultations is neither a quick nor a sure fire recipe for dismantling opposition.On the contrary,it politicises the process and may lead to opposing groups mobilising in more contentious ways.
Reintegration Failure and Outsourcing Upside: Organisation of Public Transport in Norway
2014
AbstractAfter two decades of public sector outsourcing, debates for reintegration of services back into the public sector have emerged. However, so far outsourcing remains prevalent and reintegration is sparsely utilised. An in-depth analysis of the reorganisation of public transport in a Norwegian county, Sor-Trondelag, provides three key reasons as to why there is an ‘outsourcing upside’. Firstly, existing structures limit available alternatives for legislators, thereby making reintegration of public services back into public hands difficult. Secondly, under certain conditions competitive tendering may enhance political steering and thus make outsourcing politically desirable. Thirdly, th…
When EU liberalisation fails: The case of the Port Directive
2012
Presentation on department page: http://www.uia.no/no/portaler/om_universitetet/oekonomi_og_samfunnsvitenskap/statsvitenskap_og_ledelsesfag/ forskning_isl/isl_working_papers_series The prevailing literature on European integration holds that asymmetries towards negative integration in the treaties are important for explaining increasing liberalisation reform in the EU. Additionally,literature on interest groups gives several reasons as to why labour unions are not likely to succeed at the EU level. However, to understand European integration, there is a need to also understand lack of integration. An in-depth analysis of the decision-making process of the EU Port Directive highlights the im…
Differentiated European integration : liberalisation of post, public transport and ports
2013
Avhandling for graden philosophiae doctor Universitetet i Agder, Fakultet for økonomi og samfunnsvitenskap Why is liberalisation reform introduced in some areas but not in others? In an introduction and four independent yet interconnected articles, this doctoral thesis aims at making a contribution to answering the above mentioned question. Through detailed case studies and process-tracing, the thesis outlines four key contributions: it uses institutional perspectives to understand why a common policy becomes different in character across sectors; it identifies conditions under which liberalisation reform occurs at both the EU and local level; it contributes to clarifying the scope regardin…