Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:05:54.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Janus Face of Brussels: Socialization and Everyday Decision Making in the European Union

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2005

Jeffrey Lewis
Affiliation:
Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

This article examines the European Union's Committee of Permanent Representatives, or COREPER, a group composed of the EU permanent representatives (permreps) and responsible for preparing upcoming ministerial meetings of the Council. As the heart of everyday decision making in the EU, COREPER is a key laboratory to test whether and how national officials become socialized into a Brussels-based collective culture and what difference this makes for EU negotiations. The key scope conditions for COREPER socialization are high issue density/intensity and insulation from domestic politics. COREPER also displays a range of socialization mechanisms, including strategic calculation, role playing, and normative suasion. Based on extensive interview data and a detailed case study of negotiations for a controversial EU citizenship directive, this article documents a socialization pathway in COREPER marked by adherence to a set of norm-guided rules and principled beliefs in collectively legitimating arguments and making decisions. COREPER socialization does not indicate a pattern of national identities being replaced or subsumed; rather, the evidence points to a socialization process based on a “logic of appropriateness” and an expanded conception of the self.For feedback on earlier versions, I am grateful to the project participants and especially Jeffrey Checkel, Matthew Evangelista, Iain Johnston, and Michael Zürn. I thank the editors and two anonymous reviewers for comments that greatly improved the final product. I also acknowledge generous support from the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and the American Political Science Association's Small Grant Program, which funded portions of field research associated with this project.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2005 The IO Foundation and Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bjurulf, Bo, and Ole Elgström. 2004. Negotiating Transparency: The Role of Institutions. Journal of Common Market Studies 42 (2):24969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bostock, David. 2002. COREPER Revisited. Journal of Common Market Studies 40 (2):21534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, Michael. 1986. Europe: More Than a Continent. London: William Heinemann.
Council of the European Union. 1997. Council Guide, Volume II: Comments on the Council's Rules of Procedure, Sept 1996. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
De Wilde d'Estmael, Tanguy, and Christian Franck. 1996. Belgium. In The European Union and Member States: Towards Institutional Fusion?, edited by Dietrich Rometsch and Wolfgang Wessels, 3760. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.
Dinan, Desmond, ed. 1998. Encyclopedia of the European Union. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.
Egeberg, Morten. 1999. Transcending Intergovernmentalism? Identity and Role Perceptions of National Officials in EU Decision Making. Journal of European Public Policy 6 (3):45674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egeberg, Morten. 2004. An Organisational Approach to European Integration: Outline of a Complementary Perspective. European Journal of Political Research 43 (2):199219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egeberg, Morten, Günther Schaefer, and Jarle Trondal. 2003. The Many Faces of EU Committee Governance. West European Politics 23 (3):1940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eising, Rainer. 2002. Policy Learning in Embedded Negotiations: Explaining EU Electricity Liberalization. International Organization 56 (1):85120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eurostat, Statistical Office of the European Communities. 1996. Social Portrait of Europe. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
Evans, Peter. 1993. Building an Integrative Approach to International and Domestic Politics: Reflections and Projections. In Double-Edged Diplomacy: International Bargaining and Domestic Politics, edited by Peter Evans, Harold Jacobson, and Robert Putnam, 397430. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Golub, Jonathan. 1999. In the Shadow of the Vote? Decision Making in the European Community. International Organization 53 (4):73364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gomez, Ricardo, and John Peterson. 2001. The EU's Impossibly Busy Foreign Ministers: ‘No One is in Control.’ European Foreign Affairs Review 6 (1):5374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haas, Ernst. 1958. The Uniting of Europe: Political, Social, and Economic Forces, 1950–1957. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Hayes-Renshaw, Fiona, and Helen Wallace. 1995. Executive Power in the European Union: The Functions and Limits of the Council of Ministers. Journal of European Public Policy 2 (4):55982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes-Renshaw, Fiona, and Helen Wallace. 1997. The Council of Ministers. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Hurd, Ian. 1999. Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics. International Organization 53 (2):379408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iklé, Fred Charles. 1964. How Nations Negotiate. New York: Harper & Row.
Joerges, Christian, and Ellen Vos, eds. 1999. EU Committees: Social Regulation, Law, and Politics. Portland, Ore.: Hart.
Jones, Bernie. 1994. A Comparison of Consensus and Voting in Public Decision Making. Negotiation Journal 10 (2):16172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jupille, Joseph, James Caporaso, and Jeffrey Checkel. 2003. Integrating Institutions: Rationalism, Constructivism, and the Study of the European Union. Comparative Political Studies 36 (1/2):741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahler, Miles. 1995. International Institutions and the Political Economy of Integration. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
Katzenstein, Peter. 1997. United Germany in an Integrating Europe. In Tamed Power: Germany in Europe, edited by Peter Katzenstein, 148. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Keohane, Robert. 1984. After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Keohane, Robert. 1986. Reciprocity in International Relations. International Organization 40 (1):127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerremans, Bart. 1996. Do Institutions Make a Difference? Non-Institutionalism, Neo-Institutionalism, and the Logic of Common Decision-Making in the European Union. Governance 9 (2):21740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koslowski, Rey. 1994. Intra-EU Migration, Citizenship and Political Union. Journal of Common Market Studies 32 (3):369402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, Roderick, and David Messick, eds. 1995. Negotiation as a Social Process. London: Sage.
Laffan, Brigid. 2004. The European Union and Its Institutions as “Identity Builders.” In Transnational Identities: Becoming European in the EU, edited by Richard Herrmann, Thomas Risse, and Marilynn Brewer, 7596. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.
Lax, David, and James Sebenius. 1986. The Manager as Negotiator: Bargaining for Cooperation and Competitive Gain. New York: Free Press.
Legro, Jeffrey. 1997. Which Norms Matter? Revisiting the Failure of Internationalism. International Organization 51 (1):3163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Jeffrey. 1998. Constructing Interests: The Committee of Permanent Representatives and Decision-Making in the European Union. Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Lewis, Jeffrey. 2000. The Methods of Community in EU Decision-Making and Administrative Rivalry in the Council's Infrastructure. Journal of European Public Policy 7 (2):26189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Jeffrey. 2002. National Interests: COREPER. In The Institutions of the European Union, edited by John Peterson and Michael Shackleton, 27798. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, Jeffrey. 2003. Institutional Environments and Everyday EU Decision Making: Rationalist or Constructivist? Comparative Political Studies 36 (1/2):97124.Google Scholar
Lindberg, Leon, and Stuart Scheingold. 1970. Europe's Would-Be Polity: Patterns of Change in the European Community. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
March, James, and Johan Olsen. 1998. The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders. International Organization 52 (4):94369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marks, Michael. 1997. Moving at Different Speeds: Spain and Greece in the European Union. In Tamed Power: Germany in Europe, edited by Peter Katzenstein, 14266. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Moravcsik, Andrew. 1998. The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Noël, Emile. 1967. The Committee of Permanent Representatives. Journal of Common Market Studies 5 (3):21951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, Peter. 1996. Electoral Rights Under Article 8B of the Treaty of Rome. Common Market Law Review 33 (3):47398.Google Scholar
Pruitt, Dean. 1981. Negotiation Behavior. New York: Academic Press.
Puetter, Uwe. 2003. Informal Circles of Ministers: A Way Out of the EU's Institutional Dilemmas? European Law Journal 9 (1):10924.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert. 1988. Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games. International Organization 42 (3):42760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, Robert. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Raiffa, Howard. 1982. The Art and Science of Negotiation: How to Resolve Conflict and Get the Best Out of Bargaining. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Rapoport, Anatol. 1960. Fights, Games, and Debates. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Risse, Thomas. 2000. ‘Let's Argue!’: Communicative Action in World Politics. International Organization 54 (1):139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse, Thomas. 2004. European Institutions and Identity Change: What Have We Learned? In Transnational Identities: Becoming European in the EU, edited by Richard Herrmann, Thomas Risse, and Marilynn Brewer, 24771. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.
Rubin, Jeffrey, and Frank Sander. 1988. When Should We Use Agents?: Direct vs. Representative Negotiation. Negotiation Journal 4 (4):395401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schimmelfennig, Frank. 2000. International Socialization in the New Europe: Rational Action in an Institutional Environment. European Journal of International Relations 6 (1):10939.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stasavage, David. 2004. Open-Door or Closed Door? Transparency in Domestic and International Bargaining. International Organization 58 (4):667703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, Anselm. 1978. Negotiations: Varieties, Contexts, Processes, and Social Order. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Trondal, Jarle. 2001. Administrative Integration Across Levels of Governance: Integration Through Participation in EU Committees. ARENA Report No. 01/7. Oslo, Norway: ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo.
Trondal, Jarle. 2002. Beyond the EU Membership—Non-Membership Dichotomy? Supranational Identities among National EU Decision-Makers. Journal of European Public Policy 9 (3):46887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Schendelen, M. P. C. M. 1996. ‘The Council Decides’: Does the Council Decide? Journal of Common Market Studies 34 (4):53148.Google Scholar
Waever, Ole. 1995. Identity, Integration and Security: Solving the Sovereignty Puzzle in EU Studies. Journal of International Affairs 48 (2):389431.Google Scholar
Wallace, Helen. 1973. National Governments and the European Communities. London: Chatham House.
Wallace, Helen. 2000. The Institutional Setting: Five Variations on a Theme. In Policy-Making in the European Union, 4th ed., edited by Helen Wallace and William Wallace, 337. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wallace, William. 1994. Regional Integration: The West European Experience. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
Wallace, William. 2000. Collective Governance. In Policy-Making in the European Union, 4th ed., edited by Helen Wallace and William Wallace, 52342. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Walton, Richard, and Robert McKersie, eds. 1965. A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations: An Analysis of a Social Interaction System. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Wendt, Alexander. 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zartman, William, and Maureen Berman. 1982. The Practical Negotiator. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.