Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Europe – Economic integration – Political aspects'

This study determines how economic, political, and socio-demographic factors impact the parliamentary election outcomes in central and eastern European countries in transition period. A one-way fixed-effect method has been applied to analyze two main economic models. The dependent variables are share of the Western-oriented and traditional-oriented parties. Data of sixteen countries have been used in the thesis. According to the results of this study, it is possible to conclude that outcomes of parliamentary elections in central and eastern European countries depended on political and socio-demographic factors from I 990-2001. Factors such as loans, received from the United States, per capita in the pre-election year, as a measure of external pressure, and share of agriculture in GDP, as a measure of country`s level of development, demonstrate consistent significance in both variations of the model.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Sociology, 2005.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-08, Section: A, page: 3111. Adviser: Arthur S. Alderson. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 5, 2006).

This thesis is a discussion on whether every sector of human activity really is or needs to be 'global'. It discusses the impact that economic globalization has on the role of the nation-state and on the concept of democracy, at both local and international levels. Particular emphasis is put on some of the democratic challenges associated with dispute settlement at the WTO and also under foreign investment international instruments. It is argued that increased participation by non-state actors, particularly NGOs, in state-to-state and in investor-state arbitration threatens to weaken the arbitration process and does little to remedy alleged democratic deficiencies. The author concludes that many democratic concerns regarding these types of dispute settlement processes may be better addressed by strengthening national democracies. Increased public information, consultation, and participation in the shaping of foreign policy could reduce much of the criticism concerning both, international dispute settlement and decision-making.

Scholars often address the process of enlargement as one-sided argument. This work provides a general theory of organizational expansion by including strategies and actions of both, applicant states and members of international organizations. It is argued that dependent on the domestic characteristics of states an organization strategically implement a set of conditions to avoid the application and admission of states, which are either not able to conform with the rules or not willing to pay the costs of membership. This process incorporates two stages. I test this theory by utilizing a Heckman-Probit-Selection Model, which accounts for this two-stage procedure. The results confirm that conditions are important to avoid costs in the process of expansion.

In the 90´s, Europe used to be depicted as the most privileged political arena for regional nationalist political parties to access for “more” political power. In that sense, whereas formal channels of regional interest representation were taken for granted by those standing within federal political systems; informal channels of regional interest representation were highly valued by regional nationalists standing in decentralized or devolutionary constitutional settlements. In spite of nuanced institutional preferences, Europe was rationally inspired (Ostrom 2005) as it used to be perceived as an aggregation of formal-legal structures that could be used as a means to prescribe, proscribe and permit a certain behavior in exchange of a personal utility. Moreover, regional nationalists were policy “maximizers” who acted in isolation, away from the center, using their own limited political resources to maximize their policy gains by pursuing distinctive forms of political autonomy. However, by the end of the 90’s, both categories of regional nationalists plunged into European disillusion due to the limits of a sovereign logic prevailing in Europe.

However, in the 21st century, as soon as a new European policy cycle started to emerge and the economic crisis started to cripple, experienced regional nationalists realized that they could use the benefits of regional economic resources in face of the European Economic strategy to justify further concessions of policy competences that are still shared, either in theory or in practice, as well as to argue for new ones. The political plan would consist of using the reference of the European Economic targets to deliver policies, which would allow them to legitimize their nationalist aspirations, in both layers of governance, as well as to induce regional citizens into their political plan so they can finally reach the legal threshold to endorse a new state reform. Moreover, since they were rationally bounded, in the sense that they were lacking the policy expertise to perform these goals, they have learned to rely on a policy narrative (Shabahan et al 2011; Jones and Beth 2010; Radaelli 2010) embedded in a territorial economic argument to make sense of an advocacy coalition framework (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith 1993), using informal channels of regional interest intermediation as “cognitive” structures (Scot 1995a) to articulate a policy strategy to be implemented in Europe and at the regional level of governance.

Therefore, and irrespectively of nuanced constitutional settlements, all experienced regional nationalists have returned to the center, using informal channels as an instrument of governance (Salamon 2002) to clarify the best policy options to be implemented in both layers of governance. In other words, regional nationalists have become “policy satisficers” (Simon 1954) who have learned to forgo immediate satisfaction in Europe to collect major gains of political power across multiple layers of governance. If the term “usage” can be defined as the act of using something to achieve certain political goals (Jacquot and Wolf 2003), in this research, we will apply the concept of “usage” to demonstrate that experienced regional nationalists in government have moved from a rational to a cognitive “usage” of the European institutions to perform renewed political preferences across multiple layers of governance.

Departing from an actor centered institutionalist approach (Mayntz and Sharp 1997), we will demonstrate that the N-VA in Flanders, since 2004, and the SNP in Scotland, since 2007, have become new pragmatic nationalists. In that sense, we will argue that, in a clear contrast with pragmatic nationalists of the 90’s who expected to legitimize their nationalist aspirations in Europe by the means of a rational “usage” of the European institutions; experienced regional nationalists have become new pragmatic nationalists as they have learned to rely on a cognitive “usage” of the European institutions to legitimize their nationalist aspirations, no longer in Europe, but through Europe.

We will then conclude that in the 21st century, and against traditional dogmas of the 90’s, the “usage” of Europe by regional nationalists is cognitively twisted, economically driven and collectively performed. It embraces all experienced regional nationalist political parties in government, irrespectively of their constitutional settlement or nationalist credo, as long as they possess the ability to anchor a political strategy embedded in “identity” without sticking to strict politics of nationalism.

Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study attempts to examine the international debt crisis in the 1980s from a primarily political perspective, to permit a greater understanding of the interaction between economics and politics in the course of crisis management The process of dealing with the current international debt crisis provides an pat case for investigation of how economic concerns affect political outcomes, and how political factors influence economic outcomes, and how political factors influence economic policies. This study concentrates on the two regions of Latin America and Eastern Europe where the debt crisis started. The study emphasizes that the international debt crisis started. The study emphasizes that the international debt problem has been increasingly politicized in the contemporary international relations, and that its solution, in addition to the economic aspects, calls for political willingness by all parties concerned.

Consumer choice has become a key reform trend in the provision of public services in Western European welfare states. Research on the welfare effects of choice reforms – including greater provider choice for the individual and competition between providers – has largely focused on economic evaluations of the extrinsic (outcome) effects of choice, thereby leaving its intrinsic, or procedural, value unexplored. The overarching objective of this thesis is to investigate the welfare effects of choice in the provision of health and long-term care (LTC) and their implications for equity. The thesis utilises the subjective well-being approach – incorporating both procedural and outcome utility from choice – to measure welfare effects based on quantitative analysis of survey data. Welfare effects and equity implications are examined in relation to: competition in health care in the English National Health System (NHS); choice of care package in the German long-term care system; and individual preferences and views of choice as a priority in the provision of health care in three NHS countries. The thesis argues that both service characteristics – extent of competition, information availability, technical complexity – and individual capabilities – ability to process information, capacity to manage transaction costs, availability of private support – influence the benefits that individuals derive from choice. Results suggest that choice policies have an overall positive welfare effect in both health and long-term care. However, while direct evidence of outcome improvements is found, the empirical analysis only finds indirect evidence of procedural utility. Middle class characteristics, primarily income and education, are found to have a positive influence on the benefits of choice, amounting to evidence of inequitable facets of choice policies. The middle class further exhibits preferences for choice over and above other characteristics of health care systems. Overall, this thesis advocates a holistic approach to the analysis of choice, incorporating its procedural value and paying particular attention to the equity implications of the choice situation, information processing and differences in available options as well as preferences for choice.

Defence date: 7 February 2009
Examining Board: Prof. Peter Wagner, University of Trento and formerly EUI (Supervisor); Prof. Richard Bellamy, University College London; Prof. Claus Offe, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin; Prof. Neil Walker, University of Edinburgh and formerly EUI
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This thesis proposes a new way of addressing two central questions in the study of the European Union: What is the nature of the European Union as a political entity and how does it emerge? The point of departure is the, by now widely accepted, conceptualisation of the EU as a polity and the extensive discussions, not least in normative and prescriptive terms, that this process implied. Judging that many of the debates have reached dead-ends, the thesis proposes a novel way of conceptualising the concept ‘polity’ in its application to the European Union. It argues that the European Union polity should be understood as a configuration of agreements to collectively address common problems. The thesis then offers an analysis of three such fields of agreed upon common activities over the period 1992 to 2005 which are constitutive of the European Union polity and construct its boundedness: ‘Enlargement to the East’; ‘Immigration policy’; and ‘Europe as an actor in the world.’ Under scrutiny includes: the context in which these policies emerged; the normative ideas through which the problems at stake were identified; and the agreed-upon mechanisms for addressing common problems. To understand the emergence and nature of these common activities, the thesis proposes a concept-centred approach. It argues that concepts are constitutive for the European Union polity. The concepts constitute the agreements to address problems in common and thus ‘form’ the European Union polity. Thereby, the thesis shows the ways in which five key concepts - human rights, democracy, diversity, prosperity and security - are effective (‘their power’ or ‘efficacy’) and which Gestalt (‘meaning’) they take on in these specific problem-ridden situations. Particular attention is paid to the relationship and, specifically, tensions between the different normative concepts as well as the compromises that they form and the re-configuration of the respective policy fields they bring about. The thesis concludes that these findings should be interpreted as a self-understanding of the European Union. This self-understanding encompasses the commitment to a set of ideas, the decision to take action in certain political domains and, not least, the selfidentification as a political actor and entity. Thus, focusing on the power and Gestalt of concepts without falling into an abstract idealism, the thesis combines an approach of a historical sociology, cultural sociology and the history of concepts with key concerns of European Union studies.

Defence date: 28 May 2007
Examining board: Prof. Friedrich Kratochwil, European University Institute (Supervisor) ; Prof. Daniel Deudney, Johns Hopkins University ; Prof. Sergio Fabbrini, Università degli Studi di Trento ; Prof. Alexander H. Trechsel, European University Institute
As a novel and complex polity, also subject to endless proposals for institutional reform, the viability of the EU is an open but under-theorized question. This thesis conceptualizes EU viability from an internal perspective, that is, the viability of the process of integration rather than Europe as a viable actor in international politics. Adopting the concept of a compound polity to understand the tensions inherent in the EU, viability is defined in relation to the -rules of the game- of this compound system. This gambit has a twofold purpose. Firstly, it permits an analogy with another historical case of a compound system, the antebellum US republic. Secondly, it enables the specification of two scenarios of viability in a compound polity: dynamic equilibrium and voluntary centralization. Four aspects of the rules of the game (institutions, expectations, competence allocation and representative functions) are analysed to determine which scenario the EU follows. The analogy with the early US and its own conflicts over these four elements of the rules of the game is then contrasted with the EU experience. Five differences in how these disputes arise and the means for trying to settle them are singled out to explain the differing problems of viability in both compound polities. The results of this analogical analysis are then used to explore the appropriateness of certain proposed changes to the rules of the game in the EU, notably in the area of political representation. In a system accustomed to dynamic equilibrium, enhancing the representation of individuals is often seen as a condition for favouring more voluntary centralization. However, the analysis of conflicts over the rules of the game in two compound systems suggests a more cautious approach is required in the interests of viability. Hence this study presents itself as a significant, if incomplete, initial step in the process of identifying what makes the EU viable.

Li, Yun.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 303-320).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts also in Chinese.

by Li Hang-tsang, Steven.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-138).
Abstract also in Chinese.
List of Tables --- p.i
List of Charts --- p.iii
List of Diagrams --- p.iii
Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- Global Interaction and Economic Development --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- Sociological Perspectives of Economic Development --- p.3
Chapter 1.3 --- Network Perspective of Global Interaction --- p.7
Chapter 1.4 --- Objectives and research Design --- p.9
Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.11
Chapter 2.1 --- World System Perspective and Global Interaction --- p.11
Chapter 2.1.1 --- Classification Scheme of World System Perspective --- p.12
Chapter 2.1.2 --- Global Interaction and the Operation of Capitalism --- p.13
Chapter 2.2 --- Global Interaction and Economic Development --- p.19
Chapter 2.2.1 --- Economic Business Cycle and Economic Development --- p.20
Chapter 2.2.2 --- Global Factors and Economic Development --- p.22
Chapter 2.2.3 --- Local Factors and Economic Development --- p.24
Chapter 2.3 --- Critiques and Limitations of World System Perspective --- p.25
Chapter 2.3.1 --- The Limitation of Theory Testing --- p.26
Chapter 2.3.2 --- Insufficient Study of Global Interaction --- p.27
Chapter (1) --- Interaction Among Core Countries --- p.29
Chapter (2) --- Interaction Between Core Country and Semi-Peripheral Country --- p.30
Chapter (3) --- Interaction Among Peripheral Countries --- p.31
Chapter (4) --- Other Unspecified Interaction --- p.31
Chapter 2.3.3 --- The Ignored Facets of Global Interaction --- p.32
Chapter (1) --- Interaction Partner --- p.32
Chapter (2) --- Interaction Intensity --- p.32
Chapter (3) --- The Combined Effect of Interaction Partner and Interaction Intensity --- p.33
Chapter 2.4 --- The Network Perspective and New Conception to Global Interaction --- p.35
Chapter Chapter 3 --- Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses --- p.39
Chapter 3.1 --- The Causal Explanation of World System Perspective --- p.39
Chapter 3.2 --- Causal Sequencing and Explanation of Network Perspective --- p.41
Chapter 3.3 --- An Integrated Conceptual Framework --- p.42
Chapter 3.4 --- The Hypotheses of Emergent Properties of Global Interaction --- p.44
Chapter (1) --- The Interaction Position Effect --- p.44
Chapter (2) --- The Interaction Intensity Effect --- p.45
Chapter (3) --- The Interaction partner Effect --- p.46
Chapter Chapter 4 --- Data and Methodology --- p.49
Chapter 4.1 --- Data --- p.49
Chapter 4.1.1 --- Longitudinal Data and Sampling of Countries --- p.49
Chapter 4.1.2 --- Data Diagnosis --- p.51
Chapter 4.1.3 --- The Timing of Causality --- p.51
Chapter 4.2 --- Variables and Regression Models --- p.52
Chapter 4.2.1 --- Classification of Country and the Model of Interaction Position Effect --- p.52
Chapter 4.2.2 --- Interaction Intensity Effect and Economic Development --- p.55
Chapter 4.2.3 --- Interaction Partner Effect and Economic Development --- p.57
Chapter Chapter 5 --- Structure and Dynamics of Global Interaction --- p.60
Chapter 5.1 --- Classification of Countries --- p.60
Chapter 5.2 --- Characteristics of Three Country Types --- p.62
Chapter 5.2.1 --- World Total Export and Total Export From Each Country Type --- p.62
Chapter 5.2.2 --- Gross National Product Per Capita of Different Country Types --- p.65
Chapter 5.3 --- Patterns of Global Interaction --- p.66
Chapter 5.3.1 --- Pattern of Interaction Intensity --- p.66
Chapter (1) --- Intra-Group Interaction --- p.66
Chapter (2) --- Inter-Group Interaction --- p.67
Chapter (3) --- The Changing of Interaction Intensity --- p.69
Chapter 5.3.2 --- Pattern of Interaction partner --- p.71
Chapter (1) --- Pattern of Interaction Partner in terms of Total Export to All Countries --- p.71
Chapter (2) --- Pattern of Interaction Partner in terms of Intra-Group Interaction --- p.74
Chapter (3) --- Pattern of Interaction Partner in terms of Inter-Group Interaction --- p.77
Chapter (a) --- Interaction Between Core Country and Semi-Peripheral Country --- p.77
Chapter (b) --- Interaction Between Core Country and Peripheral Country --- p.79
Chapter (c) --- Interaction Between Semi-Peripheral Country and Peripheral Country --- p.81
Chapter (d) --- Comparing the Linkages among Three Country Types --- p.84
Chapter Chapter 6 --- Regression Analysis --- p.87
Chapter 6.1 --- Interaction Position Effect --- p.87
Chapter 6.2 --- Interaction Intensity Effect --- p.88
Chapter 6.3 --- Interaction Partner Effect --- p.94
Chapter Chapter 7 --- Discussion and Conclusion --- p.100
Chapter 7.1 --- Emergent Properties and Economic Development --- p.100
Chapter 7.2 --- Network perspective and World System Perspective --- p.104
Chapter 7.3 --- Limitation of This Research --- p.105
Chapter 7.4 --- Future Possibilities --- p.106
Appendix A Classification of Countries --- p.109
Appendix B Centrality Score and Ranking of Countries --- p.117
Chapter B.1 --- Centrality Score of Countries from 1975 to1990 --- p.117
Chapter B.2 --- Centrality Score of Countries in their Respective Country Types from 1975 to1990 --- p.125
Bibliography --- p.133

Defence date: 27 September 2017
Examining Board: Professor Marie-Laure Salles-Djelic, Sciences Po; Dr. João Rodrigues, University of Coimbra (external advisor); Professor Youssef Cassis, European Universiy Institute; Professor Lucy Riall, European University Institute (supervisor)
Awarded the 2019 Dorfman Dissertation Prize by the History of Economics Society
The thesis is a close study of a transnational group of intellectuals, mainly economists, who met in Paris in 1938 and at Mont Pèlerin in 1947 with the explicit aim to create a new liberalism for the modern world. At times they would use neoliberalism as a description of the creed they were developing, later they would opt for classical liberalism, in a bid to highlight continuities in their approach to political philosophy. Was their liberalism classical or was it new? The verb to reinvent is used frequently in modern academe, but its meaning is somewhat unclear. In the history of political thought, however, and especially the history of liberalism, the term can become a useful tool for enquiry. One way or the other, all new creeds build on previous ones, but the intellectuals in question were involved in a conscious, explicit attempt to change liberalism. This involved restating certain aspects of what they perceived as “true liberalism” and updating these to a different social and historical context, while also purging liberalism of all they felt was wrong with it. The contextualization of the many layers of interpretation involved in making these arguments is the main topic of this thesis. The intellectuals in question argued that “economic planning” was what had led to the rise of dictatorships in Europe. They included the communist dictatorship in Russia and the fascist dictatorships in Germany and Italy as part of the same phenomenon, totalitarianism, and further claimed that democracies like the USA, Great Britain and France were headed in the same direction. In this way, other, tangential movements to reinvent liberalism under labels such as new liberalism or social liberalism also came under attack, as it was argued that they were taking society in a totalitarian direction through collectivism and economic planning. The latter concept was defined loosely as any government “intervention” in the economy or, more precisely, attempts at subverting the mechanisms of markets in order to improve on their outcomes, redistribute wealth or counter business cycles. This strong criticism of economic planning did not lead these thinkers to advocate a position of “laissez-faire”. On the contrary, the second major plank of their intellectual project was an attack on the ideas of laissez-faire liberalism, a creed they claimed was rigid and outdated. Their internal debates can be seen as an attempt to incorporate a theory of states into right-wing liberalism, and focused on how to use states to spread, protect and foster what they still saw as a largely self-regulating mechanism. The first part of the thesis traces this dual argument to books, articles, lectures and correspondence by and between the intellectuals involved, from the German language socialist calculation debates in the 1920s, to the first meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1947. The second part of the thesis uses some of the tools of micro history to conduct an in-depth study of this ten-day meeting in the Swiss alps. In the conclusion I argue that neoliberalism is best understood as a theory of modernity arising out of the historical conjuncture of Europe in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. This theory was based on a novel conceptualization of markets as mediators of modernity, the only mechanism through which order and prosperity could be achieved in a modern mass-society. Neoliberals took this new understanding of markets and combined it with an embrace of state power as legitimate within a theory of liberalism when put to use in concordance with what was believed to be logic of markets. The work may contribute to a deeper understanding of neoliberalism, whether this is seen as a philosophy inspiring a political movement, a political rationality, or some sort of combination of the two.

Defence date: 8 October 1987
Examining board: Prof. Vincent Wright, Nuffield College ; Prof. Yves Morvan, University of Rennes ; Prof. Julien Savary, University of Toulouse ; Prof. Stephen Young, Strathclyde University
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 11 September 1995
Examining board: Prof. Susan Strange (LSE, Warwick and EUI, supervisor) ; Prof. Roger Morgan (European University Institute, co-supervisor) ; Ms. Noriko Hama (Chief Economist, Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc., London) ; Prof. Jonathan Story (INSEAD, Fontainebleau) ; Prof. Stephen Wilks (University of Exeter)
First made available online: 1 December 2015

Defence date: 12 January 2016
Examining Board: Professor László Bruszt, European University Institute (EUI Supervisor); Professor Adrienne Héritier, European University Institute; Professor Wade Jacoby, Brigham Young University; Professor Frank Schimmelfenning, ETH Zürich.
The dissertation aims at understanding and explaining the existence of variation in sustainable compliance with EU legislation in two similarly rule-taking countries. The cases under examination are Hungary and Poland which have experienced a similar historical background, similar environmental problems and have been subject to similar EU conditions and requirements for accession. Nevertheless, the EU Annual Progress Reports and the Tri-Annual Monitoring Reports showed a variation in their compliance with European environmental requirements. The existing literature has explained this divergence by taking a supply-side approach, focusing on those state actors and incumbents who could decide to supply compliance or not. In particular, researchers of compliance and of Europeanisation have focused on differences in capacity limitations or incentives to domestic actors. These supply-side approaches, however, do not seem to fully explain the existing divergence between the performances of Hungary and Poland nor do they sufficiently tackle the issue of "sustainable compliance" in the post-Accession period. In my analysis, I instead explain variation in sustainable compliance by exploring demand-side explanations. To this end, the thesis explores the hypothesis of demand for compliance emerging on the part of stakeholders who recognise its potential for profitability and, thus, influence its sustainability. Its starting point is the Tsebelis' study on stakeholders which describes them solely as "veto players" along the road to compliance; however, this analysis demonstrates that there is also another dimension to the influence they may have. I build my hypothesis around the existence of such factors as market incentives and pre-existing cooperative strategies that make compliance convenient for stakeholders. Moreover, I consider the role played by external assistance and the existence of alliances between external and domestic stakeholders to improve the overall compliance performance of less-regulated countries. The study proves the significance of market incentives and pre-existing cooperative strategies in fostering sustainable compliance while showing how the two strong explanatory variables are interlinked: compliance is not a "business" per se. It has a potential to be made a "good deal" via cooperative strategies among diverse stakeholders creating a win-win settlement.

Defence date: 30 May 1997
Examining Board: Prof. Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki) ; Prof. John Kriege (CRHST, Paris) ; Prof. Susan Strange (University of Warwick - supervisor) ; Prof. Jan Zielonka (EUI)
First made available online 22 August 2017
The relationship between the state and European integration is with good reason a central concern in current political sciences. Scholars approach it in different ways; some study how integration influences the state, others how the state influences integration. In answering the question of how the state and integration relate to each other, all of them deal with a problem which is particularly important because of its concrete implications, but which is also particularly difficult to resolve. The concrete empirical questions of what happens to the state in the process of integration, or what is the role of the state in that process, are essential for the understanding of the nature and functioning of the present European political systems. If the states' functions change, one can also expect changes in the political, administrative and judiciary systems and structures of the states. Changes in functions and practices can also be seen as amounting to gradual changes in political culture. Through changes in the role and nature of the state, the contents of citizenship as well as the forms of political participation may be expected to change. Finally, the understanding of democracy and identity will be modified. On the other hand, if the states guide the process of integration, they can be seen to do so on the basis of their own characteristics, being able to halt the process when they wish. The empirical relevance of the understanding of the relationship between the state and integration is, however, not based only on these long-term effects. In some situations, it has an immediate and decisive importance in political decision-making. Not least, a country's decision to join the European Union is based on an evaluation of the consequences of membership; the understanding of these consequences, then, depends on how the relationship between the state and integration is seen.

In today’s world, cultural, social, and economic relationships increasingly transcend national borders. This coincides with high levels of migration and physical mobility across the globe. Therefore, this study investigates the degree that migrants participate in such transnational phenomena and how this participation relates to their integration in the country of residence. To address these questions, the cross-border relationships and practices of Turkish and Romanian migrants in Denmark, Germany, and Italy are examined. The study analyses the degree to which migrants are transnational, by which factors migrants’ transnationalism is determined, and whether transnationalism impacts the social and identificational integration of migrants in their country of residence. With respect to identification, not only the national but also the local level is taken into focus. The use of a unique quantitative dataset allows the study to address the often-voiced need for further quantitative findings on migrants’ transnationalism in Europe and particularly the lack of cross-national studies in this field. Additionally, the analysis goes beyond migration research’s typical focus on transnational connections between migrants’ country of origin and country of residence. The results show that the level of migrants’ transnationalism strongly differs between the measured dimensions of this phenomenon. Moreover, transnational connections and practices of all samples go beyond the dichotomy of origin and residence country, stressing the need to incorporate a broader perspective in migration research. The analysis does not find many effects of transnationalism on social and identificational integration. The few observable effects are in part of a positive and a negative nature. Furthermore, these effects differ across the analysed dimensions of integration. Based on these results, the study highlights that transnationalism and integration are not mutually exclusive.

Defence date: 8 December 1995
Examining board: Prof. Gerd Junne (University of Amsterdam) ; Prof. Roger Morgan, supervisor (European University Institute) ; Prof. Philippe Schmitter (Stanford University) ; Prof. Susan Strange, co-supervisor (University of Warwick) ; Prof. Niels Thygesen (University of Copenhagen)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Defence date: 30 October 2017
Examining Board: Professor Federico Romero, European University Institute (EUI); Doctor N. Piers Ludlow, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE); Professor Kiran Klaus Patel, Maastricht University; Professor Youssef Cassis, European University Institute (EUI).
The thesis traces the rise of Euro-journalism. It argues that the Euro-journalists - a group of influential journalists in Brussels and across Western Europe - were instrumental in shifting the representation of the European Communities in Western European media, from marginal international organisation in the 1950s to sui generis 'European' polity and incarnation of 'Europe' in the 1970s. In the 1950s, Western European media overwhelmingly considered the European Communities as one among many international organisations working for Western European cooperation. The Communities did not stand out among many 'European integration' projects ranging from liberal to Gaullist to communist. However, by the 1970s Western European media largely presented the Communities as a 'European' polity in the making. What explains this astonishing transformation and emergence of the European Communities in Western European media? The thesis puts the Euro-journalists at the centre of its analysis. It argues that the Euro-journalists adopted the sui generis 'European integration' narrative in the 1950s and early 1960s. The narrative presented the European Communities as a 'European' polity in the making, not as a normal international organisation. The thesis shows how the Euro-journalists helped spread the sui generis 'European integration' narrative in Western European media. It also places their advocacy in the changing political and economic context of the postwar decades. By the 1970s, mainstream Western European journalism had adopted Euro-journalism and the sui generis 'European integration' narrative as the standard way to cover the European Communities. Western European journalists, in a joint effort with Western European elites, tried to educate 'European' citizens about the emerging democratic 'European' political system. They mounted repeated campaigns for 'European integration', particularly during the 1979 direct elections to the European Parliament. The thesis provides some evidence that the actual influence of such campaigns on the general public in Western Europe was limited.

There are many ways parents can improve their offspring’s outcomes. For example, they can invest in offspring’s education or health. They can provide better social connections to obtain job information or personal references. In addition, they can exert political influence to obtain better labor market outcomes for their offspring. Understanding exactly how parents improve their offspring’s outcomes is very important for the formation of political perspectives and policy designs. However, it is very difficult to disentangle the factors, as parents of high socioeconomic status do many things to help their children succeed. This dissertation presents three quasi-experimental studies to understand the causal mechanisms of parents’ influence on children’s outcomes in the context of China and United States. Chapter two examines the implementation of court-ordered racial desegregation of schools and finds that school desegregation increases biracial births. This provides the first evidence of how an education policy that affects racial integration also has demographic implications and an intergenerational impact on social and economic opportunities. Chapter three examines the effect of school desegregation on infant health. This chapter adopts the same empirical strategy and data as chapter three. I extend the paper by examining the effect of school desegregation on infant health. I find that for black mothers, school desegregation improves infant health, as measured by preterm birth. It also increases maternal education and fertility age. These may be important pathways to improve infant health. Chapter two and chapter three add to the growing literature on the impact of school desegregation beyond academic achievement. Chapter five examines the effect of fathers’ political influence on offspring’s labor market outcomes in China. It presents a difference-in-difference approach that exploits the variation of political influence in three dimensions: parent bureaucrat occupation, retirement status instrumented by retirement policy, and offspring gender. Using cross-section data from China Household Income Survey, it finds that the retirement of a bureaucrat with political influence translates into a decrease in offspring’s income of 13 percent. Chapter six provides a summary and conclusions and discusses future research directions.

Defence date: 1 February 1988
Examining Board: Prof. A. S. Milward (supervisor), London School of Economics and Political Science ; Prof. R.T. Griffiths, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ; Prof. Prof. A. Kersten, Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden ; Prof. Dr. W. Loth, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster ; Prof. R. Poidevin, Université de Strasbourg III
First made available online 21 March 2019