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Incomplete Contracting and Policy Influence

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Governing the Contemporary Administrative State

Part of the book series: European Administrative Governance ((EAGOV))

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Abstract

This chapter contributes to studies of differentiated European integration, multilevel administrative integration, and the role of government agencies in policy uploading in the EU. European integration has woven EU institutions and processes into the political, administrative, and judicial life of European nation states. This observation led Olsen (1998: 2) to ask ‘what happens to organized political units when they become part of a larger unit?’. Studies show that different forms of integration contribute to differentiated institutional architectures in the EU and varieties of policy adaptation in EU member states and associated ‘third countries’ (Leruth et al., 2022). Whereas formal membership in the EU grants the state full access to EU decision-making processes, associated membership implies partial access without being fully integrated in the cycle of decision-making in the EU. Association agreements and ‘quasi-memberships’ have led to varieties of administrative integration across levels of governance (Trondal & Bauer, 2017). Concomitantly, associated EU members are overly reliant on administrative interaction with the EU administrative system (Egeberg, 2006). Arguably, bureaucratic structures are essential providers of political premises in democratic policymaking (Peters, 2018; Waldo, 1952). This chapter illustrates how administrative participation and integration is likely to affect policy uploading toward EU executive institutions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There are approximately 50 working groups in total under the seven scientific EMA committees. NoMA participates in approximately 25 of these.

  2. 2.

    Author’s own translation. Original quote: «Legemiddelsamarbeidet gjør at små land som Norge kan bidra med mye kunnskap og stille viktige spørsmål, og dermed påvirke beslutningen. Samtidig øker vår egen kompetanse på legemidler ved at vi drar nytte av. andres kunnskap, som også er helt nødvendig for den nasjonale legemiddelforvaltningen.»

  3. 3.

    Applies to matters that are not strongly politicized. Note also that these interviews were conducted prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Jarle Trondal

  2. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Jarle Trondal

  3. University of California, Berkeley, USA

    Jarle Trondal

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  1. Jarle Trondal
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Correspondence to Jarle Trondal .

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Trondal, J. (2023). Incomplete Contracting and Policy Influence. In: Governing the Contemporary Administrative State. European Administrative Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28008-5_10

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