Bernard Steunenberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 4371350 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bernard Steunenberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bernard |
| FAMILY NAME | Steunenberg |
| SIGNATURE | STEUNENBERG B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leiden University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1028-9867 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 516 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Working with the EU
State aid rules are an important part of the European Union's (EU) competition policy that aims to ensure a fair competition in the common market. These rules directly affect national and sub‐national governments of member states, which are sometimes confronted with different and opposing claims about what to do. The question is how implementing civil servants interpret and resolve these claims in practice. In this article, discourse analysis is …
How Implementation Affects Revision
In this paper, I focus on how national policy implementation affects policy revision at the EU level. The main argument is that when policy is implemented in a decentralized manner, it affects the current situation or status quo in member states. This affects the possibilities of any further legislative change at the EU level. The analyses suggests that heterogeneity in national preferences and homogeneity in national status quo points make it le…
The politics within institutions for regulating public spending
Multi-year budget frameworks are often considered as instruments for controlling spending, including in the context of the European Union. This paper shows that the effects of multi-year budgeting depends on several conditions, some of which, may lead to more rather than less spending. The analysis is based on a model of a finance minister’s decision to enforce a previously accepted budget ceiling in subsequent negotiations with a spending minist…
Public-elite gap on European integration
This article explores the relationship between elite and citizen discourses on European integration. We argue that imperfections in cue-making and cue-taking lead to a gap between elite and citizen discourses, especially in societies experiencing major changes. To investigate this, we use newly collected data from Serbia shortly after the delayed start of accession negotiations in 2014. Using vignettes for different citizen discourses, we coded s…
Different shades of responsiveness
In this contribution I propose to broaden the concept of 'policy' used in responsiveness research. When citizens also have preferences over 'what governments deliver', it is important to analyze the link between these preferences and policy outcomes. The EU policy implementation literature may help in further exploring this link. Empirical findings from this literature show that citizen preferences sometimes have an impact on the policy-as-implem…
The power of implementers
In this article we focus on compliance with European Union (EU) directives in the context of multilevel governance. Policies specified by EU directives move through different decision-making stages before they are implemented. We integrate these decision-making stages and actors in a game-theoretical model aiming to explain implementation in the EU setting. Practice and organizational literature findings already indicate that in this setting form…
Validation of the Care-Related Quality of Life Instrument in different study settings
Living in Parallel Universes? Implementing European Movable Cultural Heritage Policy in B ulgaria
This article proposes an analytical model of implementation that is used to examine the implementation of the E uropean U nion's cultural heritage policy in B ulgaria. It begins by outlining a rational choice framework conceptualizing implementation as a three‐stage game with key roles for an enforcer, domestic policy‐makers and implementing actors. This model is then applied to the case of transposition and implementation of the EU rules regardi…
Between Reason and Emotion
In this article we research the main discourses in Germany and Turkey on Turkish accession to the European Union. As we argue, these discourses may easily affect the current accession negotiations, through statements made by national political leaders. We identify three distinct discourses in Germany (multiculturalism, European consolidation and cultural incompatibility) and three in Turkey (Euro-optimism, pacta sunt servanda and Turkish pride an…
The transposition of European law in EU member states
This paper illuminates a critical stage of the implementation of European law: the transposition of European Union (EU) directives. Directives must be transposed into national policies in order to give effect to European law, yet most national authorities experience considerable transposition difficulties. For this reason, the study of transposition has become a focal point within the broader research agenda on non-compliance in the European Unio…
Is big brother watching? Commission oversight of the national implementation of EU directives
In this article I analyse the role of the European Commission in monitoring the transposition and implementation of EU Directives. The point of departure is that the Commission, like any political actor, has policy preferences that affect how it shapes its overseeing role. The Commission’s responses may vary between being ‘the guardian of the treaties’, not allowing for any changes, and a ‘silent witness’, permitting member states to set their ow…
Comparing transposition in the 27 member states of the EU
Transposition performance differs significantly across countries and policy sectors in the EU. In this article we analyse the transposition efforts of all 27 member states with regard to four EC directives expected to create considerable difficulties for compliance at the national level. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we find that discretion and legal fit are significant factors in explaining transposition. Furthermore, we discover th…
As time goes by
The aim of this article is to explain the speed with which Member States transpose EC directives in the maritime sector. By discussing earlier work, the focus is on explanatory factors related to the contents of the directive that needs to be transposed and the context within which national transposition takes place. The authors' expectations have been tested using data across seven Member States and 32 maritime directives. Using survival analysi…
Move or Perish
One reason for the low productivity of European political science and public administration departments could be a high level of national regulation, which shields departments from the forces of international competition. Higher education in Europe is not yet a single market in which students and staff compete for resources. In this article, I discuss a number of problems related to the current situation of limited competition and suggest ways to…
How Time Affects EU Decision-Making
International audience
A policy solution to the European Union's transposition puzzle
This article analyses how the policies specified in EU directives are transposed by EU member states. In contrast to existing transposition studies it develops a policy-specific approach to explain how directives are transposed by national actors. In this approach the outcome of transposition depends on the institutional arena in which decision-making takes place and the interests of the domestic actors involved. These institutional arenas can va…
Turning Swift Policy-making into Deadlock and Delay
Most member states of the European Union (EU) have some difficulty in transposing EU directives. Despite the obligation to comply with EU law, member states are often slow to adopt national policies implementing directives. In this paper I analyse this problem by focusing on the coordination of transposition in the domestic policy arena. Coordination is approached as a game in which one or more higher-level players decide on policy when lower-lev…
Stability and Change of Neuroticism in Aging
Data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were used to study the relationship between neuroticism and aging. At baseline, cross-sectional analyses of data from 2,117 respondents (aged 55-85 years, M = 70) showed no significant age differences. The magnitude of the 3- and 6-year stability coefficients was high, and 12% of the elderly participants showed a clinically relevant mean level change. Longitudinal multilevel analyses showed a small…
Between Power and Luck
Taking Barry’s (1980a,b) question ‘Is it better to be powerful or lucky?’ as a starting point, we try to answer the question of how influential the European Parliament is in the European Union (EU) legislative process. We assess the proximity between what the Parliament wants and what it eventually gets and whether this is the result of its own power or the similarity between its position and the positions of other EU actors. The empirical analys…
Enlargement and Institutional Reform in the European Union
The Search for Convergence of National Policies in the European Union
This article addresses the question of whether European integration leads to convergence in the domestic policies of the member states of the European Union. Some recent studies claim that as a result of European integration the national policies of the member states are becoming more alike. The existence of various exemptions and `flexibility' arrangements in the revisions of the Treaty of Rome as well as problems with implementation seem to con…
The Choices Judges Make
In this paper we focus on the way in which courts affect public policy. We present a model of judicial behavior that combines insights from theories emphasizing the importance of policy preferences with those suggesting that courts are only motivated by formal-legal criteria. By embedding our model of judicial choice in a broader context of political decision-making we show how judges are able to affect policy and under what circumstances the jud…
Understanding the EU Legislative Process
Strategic Power in the European Union
In this paper we propose a new method to evaluate the distribution of power between decision-making bodies in the European Union. Conventional methods that measure the voting power of players, such as the Banzhaf, Johnston, Holler and Shapley-Shubik indices, are insufficient for this purpose. They take no account, in an endogenous way, of the differences in the abilities of players to affect the outcome of decision-making, which are a result of t…
Voter discernment and candidate entry in pluralitarian election
The Search for Convergence of National Policies in the European Union
This article addresses the question of whether European integration leads to convergence in the domestic policies of the member states of the European Union. Some recent studies claim that as a result of European integration the national policies of the member states are becoming more alike. The existence of various exemptions and `flexibility' arrangements in the revisions of the Treaty of Rome as well as problems with implementation seem to con…
Turning Swift Policy-making into Deadlock and Delay
Most member states of the European Union (EU) have some difficulty in transposing EU directives. Despite the obligation to comply with EU law, member states are often slow to adopt national policies implementing directives. In this paper I analyse this problem by focusing on the coordination of transposition in the domestic policy arena. Coordination is approached as a game in which one or more higher-level players decide on policy when lower-lev…
Comparing transposition in the 27 member states of the EU
Transposition performance differs significantly across countries and policy sectors in the EU. In this article we analyse the transposition efforts of all 27 member states with regard to four EC directives expected to create considerable difficulties for compliance at the national level. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we find that discretion and legal fit are significant factors in explaining transposition. Furthermore, we discover th…
Understanding the EU Legislative Process
How Time Affects EU Decision-Making
International audience
Between Power and Luck
Taking Barry’s (1980a,b) question ‘Is it better to be powerful or lucky?’ as a starting point, we try to answer the question of how influential the European Parliament is in the European Union (EU) legislative process. We assess the proximity between what the Parliament wants and what it eventually gets and whether this is the result of its own power or the similarity between its position and the positions of other EU actors. The empirical analys…
Strategic Power in the European Union
In this paper we propose a new method to evaluate the distribution of power between decision-making bodies in the European Union. Conventional methods that measure the voting power of players, such as the Banzhaf, Johnston, Holler and Shapley-Shubik indices, are insufficient for this purpose. They take no account, in an endogenous way, of the differences in the abilities of players to affect the outcome of decision-making, which are a result of t…
The transposition of European law in EU member states
This paper illuminates a critical stage of the implementation of European law: the transposition of European Union (EU) directives. Directives must be transposed into national policies in order to give effect to European law, yet most national authorities experience considerable transposition difficulties. For this reason, the study of transposition has become a focal point within the broader research agenda on non-compliance in the European Unio…
A policy solution to the European Union's transposition puzzle
This article analyses how the policies specified in EU directives are transposed by EU member states. In contrast to existing transposition studies it develops a policy-specific approach to explain how directives are transposed by national actors. In this approach the outcome of transposition depends on the institutional arena in which decision-making takes place and the interests of the domestic actors involved. These institutional arenas can va…
As time goes by
The aim of this article is to explain the speed with which Member States transpose EC directives in the maritime sector. By discussing earlier work, the focus is on explanatory factors related to the contents of the directive that needs to be transposed and the context within which national transposition takes place. The authors' expectations have been tested using data across seven Member States and 32 maritime directives. Using survival analysi…
Is big brother watching? Commission oversight of the national implementation of EU directives
In this article I analyse the role of the European Commission in monitoring the transposition and implementation of EU Directives. The point of departure is that the Commission, like any political actor, has policy preferences that affect how it shapes its overseeing role. The Commission’s responses may vary between being ‘the guardian of the treaties’, not allowing for any changes, and a ‘silent witness’, permitting member states to set their ow…
Coalition theories
The paper analyzes coalition formation in Dutch municipalities. After discussing the main features of the institutional setting, several theories are discussed, which are classified as size oriented, policy oriented and actor oriented models. A test statistic is proposed to determine the predictive power of these models. The empirical analysis shows that strategic positions as well as some of the distinguished preferences are important in the set…
The power of implementers
In this article we focus on compliance with European Union (EU) directives in the context of multilevel governance. Policies specified by EU directives move through different decision-making stages before they are implemented. We integrate these decision-making stages and actors in a game-theoretical model aiming to explain implementation in the EU setting. Practice and organizational literature findings already indicate that in this setting form…
Different shades of responsiveness
In this contribution I propose to broaden the concept of 'policy' used in responsiveness research. When citizens also have preferences over 'what governments deliver', it is important to analyze the link between these preferences and policy outcomes. The EU policy implementation literature may help in further exploring this link. Empirical findings from this literature show that citizen preferences sometimes have an impact on the policy-as-implem…
Living in Parallel Universes? Implementing European Movable Cultural Heritage Policy in B ulgaria
This article proposes an analytical model of implementation that is used to examine the implementation of the E uropean U nion's cultural heritage policy in B ulgaria. It begins by outlining a rational choice framework conceptualizing implementation as a three‐stage game with key roles for an enforcer, domestic policy‐makers and implementing actors. This model is then applied to the case of transposition and implementation of the EU rules regardi…
The Choices Judges Make
In this paper we focus on the way in which courts affect public policy. We present a model of judicial behavior that combines insights from theories emphasizing the importance of policy preferences with those suggesting that courts are only motivated by formal-legal criteria. By embedding our model of judicial choice in a broader context of political decision-making we show how judges are able to affect policy and under what circumstances the jud…
Stability and Change of Neuroticism in Aging
Data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were used to study the relationship between neuroticism and aging. At baseline, cross-sectional analyses of data from 2,117 respondents (aged 55-85 years, M = 70) showed no significant age differences. The magnitude of the 3- and 6-year stability coefficients was high, and 12% of the elderly participants showed a clinically relevant mean level change. Longitudinal multilevel analyses showed a small…
Courts, Cabinet and Coalition Parties
An analysis is made of the interaction between the legislature and the judiciary in the Dutch parliamentary setting, focusing in particular on the issue of euthanasia. Using the methodology of positive political theory, two alternative hypotheses are derived about the extent to which the courts may affect public policies. Two main conclusions can be drawn from the analysis of the decision-making process on euthanasia. First, the statutory interpr…
Agent discretion, regulatory policymaking, and different institutional arrangements
Between Reason and Emotion
In this article we research the main discourses in Germany and Turkey on Turkish accession to the European Union. As we argue, these discourses may easily affect the current accession negotiations, through statements made by national political leaders. We identify three distinct discourses in Germany (multiculturalism, European consolidation and cultural incompatibility) and three in Turkey (Euro-optimism, pacta sunt servanda and Turkish pride an…
Public-elite gap on European integration
This article explores the relationship between elite and citizen discourses on European integration. We argue that imperfections in cue-making and cue-taking lead to a gap between elite and citizen discourses, especially in societies experiencing major changes. To investigate this, we use newly collected data from Serbia shortly after the delayed start of accession negotiations in 2014. Using vignettes for different citizen discourses, we coded s…
How Implementation Affects Revision
In this paper, I focus on how national policy implementation affects policy revision at the EU level. The main argument is that when policy is implemented in a decentralized manner, it affects the current situation or status quo in member states. This affects the possibilities of any further legislative change at the EU level. The analyses suggests that heterogeneity in national preferences and homogeneity in national status quo points make it le…
Enlargement and Institutional Reform in the European Union
The politics within institutions for regulating public spending
Multi-year budget frameworks are often considered as instruments for controlling spending, including in the context of the European Union. This paper shows that the effects of multi-year budgeting depends on several conditions, some of which, may lead to more rather than less spending. The analysis is based on a model of a finance minister’s decision to enforce a previously accepted budget ceiling in subsequent negotiations with a spending minist…
Voter discernment and candidate entry in pluralitarian election
Coalition theories
The paper analyzes coalition formation in Dutch municipalities. After discussing the main features of the institutional setting, several theories are discussed, which are classified as size oriented, policy oriented and actor oriented models. A test statistic is proposed to determine the predictive power of these models. The empirical analysis shows that strategic positions as well as some of the distinguished preferences are important in the set…
Agent discretion, regulatory policymaking, and different institutional arrangements
Courts, Cabinet and Coalition Parties
An analysis is made of the interaction between the legislature and the judiciary in the Dutch parliamentary setting, focusing in particular on the issue of euthanasia. Using the methodology of positive political theory, two alternative hypotheses are derived about the extent to which the courts may affect public policies. Two main conclusions can be drawn from the analysis of the decision-making process on euthanasia. First, the statutory interpr…
Voter discernment and candidate entry in pluralitarian election
Strategic Power in the European Union
In this paper we propose a new method to evaluate the distribution of power between decision-making bodies in the European Union. Conventional methods that measure the voting power of players, such as the Banzhaf, Johnston, Holler and Shapley-Shubik indices, are insufficient for this purpose. They take no account, in an endogenous way, of the differences in the abilities of players to affect the outcome of decision-making, which are a result of t…
The Search for Convergence of National Policies in the European Union
This article addresses the question of whether European integration leads to convergence in the domestic policies of the member states of the European Union. Some recent studies claim that as a result of European integration the national policies of the member states are becoming more alike. The existence of various exemptions and `flexibility' arrangements in the revisions of the Treaty of Rome as well as problems with implementation seem to con…
The Choices Judges Make
In this paper we focus on the way in which courts affect public policy. We present a model of judicial behavior that combines insights from theories emphasizing the importance of policy preferences with those suggesting that courts are only motivated by formal-legal criteria. By embedding our model of judicial choice in a broader context of political decision-making we show how judges are able to affect policy and under what circumstances the jud…
Understanding the EU Legislative Process
Enlargement and Institutional Reform in the European Union
Between Power and Luck
Taking Barry’s (1980a,b) question ‘Is it better to be powerful or lucky?’ as a starting point, we try to answer the question of how influential the European Parliament is in the European Union (EU) legislative process. We assess the proximity between what the Parliament wants and what it eventually gets and whether this is the result of its own power or the similarity between its position and the positions of other EU actors. The empirical analys…
Stability and Change of Neuroticism in Aging
Data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were used to study the relationship between neuroticism and aging. At baseline, cross-sectional analyses of data from 2,117 respondents (aged 55-85 years, M = 70) showed no significant age differences. The magnitude of the 3- and 6-year stability coefficients was high, and 12% of the elderly participants showed a clinically relevant mean level change. Longitudinal multilevel analyses showed a small…
A policy solution to the European Union's transposition puzzle
This article analyses how the policies specified in EU directives are transposed by EU member states. In contrast to existing transposition studies it develops a policy-specific approach to explain how directives are transposed by national actors. In this approach the outcome of transposition depends on the institutional arena in which decision-making takes place and the interests of the domestic actors involved. These institutional arenas can va…
Turning Swift Policy-making into Deadlock and Delay
Most member states of the European Union (EU) have some difficulty in transposing EU directives. Despite the obligation to comply with EU law, member states are often slow to adopt national policies implementing directives. In this paper I analyse this problem by focusing on the coordination of transposition in the domestic policy arena. Coordination is approached as a game in which one or more higher-level players decide on policy when lower-lev…
Move or Perish
One reason for the low productivity of European political science and public administration departments could be a high level of national regulation, which shields departments from the forces of international competition. Higher education in Europe is not yet a single market in which students and staff compete for resources. In this article, I discuss a number of problems related to the current situation of limited competition and suggest ways to…
How Time Affects EU Decision-Making
International audience
Comparing transposition in the 27 member states of the EU
Transposition performance differs significantly across countries and policy sectors in the EU. In this article we analyse the transposition efforts of all 27 member states with regard to four EC directives expected to create considerable difficulties for compliance at the national level. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we find that discretion and legal fit are significant factors in explaining transposition. Furthermore, we discover th…
As time goes by
The aim of this article is to explain the speed with which Member States transpose EC directives in the maritime sector. By discussing earlier work, the focus is on explanatory factors related to the contents of the directive that needs to be transposed and the context within which national transposition takes place. The authors' expectations have been tested using data across seven Member States and 32 maritime directives. Using survival analysi…
The transposition of European law in EU member states
This paper illuminates a critical stage of the implementation of European law: the transposition of European Union (EU) directives. Directives must be transposed into national policies in order to give effect to European law, yet most national authorities experience considerable transposition difficulties. For this reason, the study of transposition has become a focal point within the broader research agenda on non-compliance in the European Unio…
Is big brother watching? Commission oversight of the national implementation of EU directives
In this article I analyse the role of the European Commission in monitoring the transposition and implementation of EU Directives. The point of departure is that the Commission, like any political actor, has policy preferences that affect how it shapes its overseeing role. The Commission’s responses may vary between being ‘the guardian of the treaties’, not allowing for any changes, and a ‘silent witness’, permitting member states to set their ow…
Between Reason and Emotion
In this article we research the main discourses in Germany and Turkey on Turkish accession to the European Union. As we argue, these discourses may easily affect the current accession negotiations, through statements made by national political leaders. We identify three distinct discourses in Germany (multiculturalism, European consolidation and cultural incompatibility) and three in Turkey (Euro-optimism, pacta sunt servanda and Turkish pride an…
Living in Parallel Universes? Implementing European Movable Cultural Heritage Policy in B ulgaria
This article proposes an analytical model of implementation that is used to examine the implementation of the E uropean U nion's cultural heritage policy in B ulgaria. It begins by outlining a rational choice framework conceptualizing implementation as a three‐stage game with key roles for an enforcer, domestic policy‐makers and implementing actors. This model is then applied to the case of transposition and implementation of the EU rules regardi…
Validation of the Care-Related Quality of Life Instrument in different study settings
The power of implementers
In this article we focus on compliance with European Union (EU) directives in the context of multilevel governance. Policies specified by EU directives move through different decision-making stages before they are implemented. We integrate these decision-making stages and actors in a game-theoretical model aiming to explain implementation in the EU setting. Practice and organizational literature findings already indicate that in this setting form…
Public-elite gap on European integration
This article explores the relationship between elite and citizen discourses on European integration. We argue that imperfections in cue-making and cue-taking lead to a gap between elite and citizen discourses, especially in societies experiencing major changes. To investigate this, we use newly collected data from Serbia shortly after the delayed start of accession negotiations in 2014. Using vignettes for different citizen discourses, we coded s…
Different shades of responsiveness
In this contribution I propose to broaden the concept of 'policy' used in responsiveness research. When citizens also have preferences over 'what governments deliver', it is important to analyze the link between these preferences and policy outcomes. The EU policy implementation literature may help in further exploring this link. Empirical findings from this literature show that citizen preferences sometimes have an impact on the policy-as-implem…
Political science (26 works) · Law (22 works) · Law (21 works) · European Union Policy and Governance (20 works) · European union (18 works) · Economics (17 works) · Politics (17 works) · International trade (12 works) · Business (11 works) · Law and economics (11 works)