ABSTRACT

EU governance is experiencing a shift towards soft governance frameworks that incorporate ‘harder’ elements. Using a qualitative case study approach and an original set of elite interviews, we examine two policy areas – health and energy – where similar such architectures – the European Semester and the Energy Union Governance Regulation – are now core governance tools. Three research questions are addressed: (1) What mechanisms are employed to harden these governance frameworks? (2) What is driving this shift? And, drawing on the more extensive experience of the Semester, (3) What lessons can be drawn for energy policy? We establish the experimentalist nature of these two governance architectures and identify a mix of ‘harder soft governance’ (HSG) mechanisms used in both cases. We show that, although similar in structure, the shift towards HSG frameworks is driven by different factors in each case. The more extensive experience of the Semester in health points to the importance of concrete implementation practices; the power of specificity to strengthen soft commitments; the role of policy coupling as a lever for implementation; the potential influence of strategic entrepreneurs; the role of politicisation in pressuring change; and the significance of periodic revision as windows of opportunity for incremental change.

摘要

欧盟治理正在朝着包含“更硬”要素的软治理框架转变。我们使用定性的案例研究方法和一组原始的精英访谈方法，研究了两个政策领域-健康和能源-其中类似的体系结构-欧洲学期和能源联盟治理法规-现在是核心治理工具。解决了三个研究问题：（1）采用哪些机制来强化这些治理框架？（2）是什么推动了这一转变？而且，借鉴本学期更广泛的经验，（3）可以从能源政策中学到什么？我们建立了这两种治理架构的实验主义性质，并确定了在两种情况下使用的“更严格的软治理”（HSG）机制的混合。我们证明，尽管结构相似，在每种情况下，向HSG框架的转变都是由不同的因素驱动的。本学期在健康方面的更广泛经验表明了具体实施实践的重要性；特殊性可以增强软承诺；政策耦合作为执行手段的作用；战略企业家的潜在影响；政治化在推动变革中的作用；以及定期修订作为增量更改的机会之窗的重要性。政治化在推动变革中的作用；以及定期修订作为增量更改的机会之窗的重要性。政治化在推动变革中的作用；以及定期修订作为增量更改的机会之窗的重要性。