The Institutional Ingredients of Polycrisis Management
Unpacking European Council’s Handling of the Energy Crisis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22017643 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sandrino Smeet (0000-0002-7100-3562, Radboud University Nijmegen, corresponding author), Sandrino Smeets, Derek Beach (0000-0003-1869-0145, Aarhus University) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Politics and Governance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2183-2463 • E-ISSN: 2183-2463 |
| Publisher | Cogitatio (PUBLISHER • PT) |
| DOI | 10.17645/pag.v11i4.7345 |
| OpenAlex | W4388499559 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 33 |
This article analyses how the European Council and the institutional infrastructure that supports it have been managing the early stages of the energy crisis. This was the time when the European Council, as the “control room” of EU crisis management, was unable to come up with any solutions to high energy prices. It makes a methodological and empirical contribution to the debate on how the European Council system manages (poly)crises. Methodologically, we introduce the method of embedded process tracing to study EU crisis management from within. Embedded process tracing combines mainstream causal process tracing techniques with elements from interpretivist approaches, to deal with context dependency, case heterogeneity, and empirical density. Empirically, we offer a process-management analysis of the first nine months of the energy crisis. We delineate the roles of various actors and institutions: the president of the European Council, the Council Secretariat, the Commission president, and the Commission Services. We unpack the crucial ingredients of polycrisis management: how to get and keep an issue on the agenda, how to shape and steer European-Council-level debates and conclusions, and how to ensure a proper follow-up by the Commission and the Council. Finally, we re-assess the image of the malfunctioning control room and show the causal relevance of the European Council’s early performance
Business · Commission · Crisis management · Empirical research · European commission · European union · Geography · International trade · Mainstream · Political science · Politics · Process tracing · Computer Science · European Union Policy and Governance · Global Energy Security and Policy · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration · Accounting
Tested by the Polycrisis
Une transition énergétique « géopolitique » ? Le rôle de la Commission européenne dans la réponse européenne à la crise de l’énergie (2021-2023)
The elephant in the room
When in a hole, keep digging’. How the Euco system process managed its way to an energy price cap
Leadership in EU policy-making
Process-Tracing Methods
The European Council and the Council
Abductive Analysis
The European Union in Crisis
Practice tracing
Tracing and explaining securitization
The European Council as a crisis manager and fusion driver
The Shadow of the European Council. Understanding Legislation on Economic Governance
Militarizing politics, essentializing identities
Towards a Practice Turn in EU Studies
From the euro to the Schengen crises
What is intergovernmental about the EU’s ‘(new) intergovernmentalist’ turn? Evidence from the Eurozone and asylum crises
Political secrecy in Europe
Crisis pressures and European integration
An elephant on the 13th floor of the Berlaymont? European Council and Commission relations in legislative agenda setting
The European Commission and the Covid-19 pandemic
Crisis management performance and the European Union
Introduction
Failing forward? Crises and patterns of European integration
Is Crisis the New Normal? The European Union in 2015
The Crisisification of Policy‐making in the European Union
Is the European Commission Really in Decline
Forging Unity
From Market Integration to Core State Powers
New institutional leadership goes viral EU crisis reforms and the coming about of the covid recovery fund
The New Intergovernmentalism
It takes three to tango
Context and Causal Mechanisms in Political Analysis
Rethinking causal explanation in interpretive international studies
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |