Book Reviews
The past decade has witnessed growth in the number of approaches to the study of European integration. Political scientists working from various theoretical approaches (rational-choice, comparative federalism, constructivism) have added to international relations approaches driven largely by realism and neofunctionalism, which have also been redefined and sharpened. Recently, however, the causal arrow has been reversed, with a growing debate addressing the impact of Europeanization on domestic politics. Shifting the focus from developments at the European level, Differential Europe: The European Union Impact on National Policy-making offers an excellent research framework and detailed case studies, with important insights into the interaction between domestic and regional policy processes.
Adrienne Héritier and colleagues compare two policy areas, rail and road transport, across five European Union (EU) member states: Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. These case studies demonstrate important variations in national responses to European policies requiring harmonization and liberalization. Although the creation of a common transport policy is a key objective for the European Community, it was an area of marginal significance until political commitment to the single market provided the impetus to move forward. In examining the obstacles presented by different regulatory approaches and conceptions about the provisions of such services, the analysis in this book fits with current research on policy styles (Cram and Richardson) or models of capitalism (Hall and Soskice).
The introductory chapter by Héritier provides a clearly organized and well-written agenda for further research on how EU policies may trigger domestic institutional, regulatory, and administrative change. After reviewing factors such as domestic reform capacity, prevailing preferences of domestic actors, and past policy history, Héritier stresses the importance of institutions, actors, policy, and beliefs as explanatory factors in each of the case studies. Scholars of comparative politics and comparative policy analysis will find much familiar territory as issues of state interventionism and administrative capacity (Italy), self-regulation and private-sector governance (Germany), and neoliberalism, privatization, and efficiency (U.K.) are highlighted as important domestic factors that influence the implementation of European policy-making.
The case studies are also thematically coherent and well organized, with each closely following the research questions and analytic approach outlined in the introductory chapter. The conceptual framework is employed throughout, with empirical results that provide both expected and unexpected observations. Though all member states are under pressure to improve market access and competition in rail and road transport, two policy areas that have generally been heavily protected through either market-entry restrictions or monopoly conditions, the comparisons across member states are perhaps more interesting than those between these policy areas.
In the British case, Knill finds that the liberal approach to market regulation in Europe matched domestic efforts already underway and required minimal change in domestic practices. In France, Douillet and Lehmkuhl find that despite strong bureaucratic efforts to liberalize transport services, the deeply rooted tradition of state interventionism and the association of such services with the welfare state have created a backlash against Europeanization, although national reforms have taken place. By contrast, Kerwer argues that in Italy, interventionism continued despite pressures for liberalization and the incompatibility of domestic and regional policy strategies and outcomes.
Though there is a wealth of material for each of the cases, it would be helpful to have some tables and boxes in the empirical chapters to match the illustrative tables in the concluding chapter. While some may find the focus on transport policy less attractive for classroom use than other policy areas such as environmental policy or monetary policy would be, the political saliency of the transportation issue in Europe should not be discounted. It is also notable that much work in the U.S. context-for example, on the deregulation and regulation of utilities and transport-rarely references the European examples documented so comprehensively by this book. The most obvious audience for the volume will be EU specialists and advanced courses on European integration. However, it should also be of great interest to courses on European public policy and, given the richness of the case studies and the analytic framework developed by Héritier, courses on public policy and management. Differential Europe is an excellent addition to our understanding of the impacts of European integration and will certainly generate research in other policy areas.
