Corporate Power and Regulation: Consumers and the Environment in the European Union

370 Pages·2019·5.461 MB·English

by  Sandra Eckert

CORPORATE POWER
AND REGULATION
C E
ONSUMERS AND THE NVIRONMENT
E U
IN THE UROPEAN NION
SANDRA ECKERT
International Series on Public Policy
International Series on Public Policy
Series Editors
B. Guy Peters
Department of Political Science
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Philippe Zittoun
Research Professor of Political Science
LET-ENTPE, University of Lyon
Lyon, France
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Sandra Eckert
Corporate Power
and Regulation
Consumers and the Environment
in the European Union
Sandra Eckert
Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany
ISSN 2524-7301 ISSN 2524-731X (electronic)
International Series on Public Policy
ISBN 978-3-030-05462-5 ISBN 978-3-030-05463-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05463-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019933870
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To Daniel
P
reface
The history of the making of this book goes back to the time I spent at
the European University Institute in Florence between 2004 and 2008.
Back then I joined a research project entitled “New modes of govern-
ance in the shadow of hierarchy” led by Adrienne Héritier, which was
funded by the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme in
the context of an integrated project on “New Modes of Governance”
(NEWGOV, Project ID 506392). As a research assistant I supported
Adrienne’s empirical work on such new modes of governance in envi-
ronmental and energy regulation. In the course of the project, Burkard
Eberlein joined us, and I had the pleasure to draw on his deep knowl-
edge and understanding of the energy sector. I was also privileged to be
able to participate in the events of the Florence School of Regulation
(FSR) in the early days of its existence. I frequently attended FSR work-
shops and conferences on energy regulation and was able to interact with
industry stakeholders and regulatory experts. I have fond memories of
regular conversations with the directors of the FSR, Pippo Ranci and
Jean-Michel Glachant, and I am furthermore deeply grateful to them for
sharing their sector expertise with me. As a research assistant in the pro-
ject I conducted numerous interviews with policy and industry experts
at both the EU and national levels. I have learned a great deal about
the specifics of industry activities and regulation in the energy, paper and
plastics sectors in the course of these interviews, and about European
policy-making more generally. I am grateful to all the experts who shared
vii
viii PREFACE
their views with me. Most importantly, I want to express my gratitude
to Adrienne and Burkard to give permission that I use the NEWGOV
material for the longitudinal analysis conducted in this book.
It is, however, not only the material gathered during the NEWGOV
project which enabled me to write this book. It is also the intellectual
history behind the very idea of the book, namely the study of “corporate
power and regulation”. Adrienne’s theoretical framing of the NEWGOV
project focused on the public side of the story, on the “shadow of hier-
archy” and its effects on business actors. We found that the scope for
non-hierarchical steering and the involvement of private actors proved
pretty limited and would only work if public actors were able to cast a
credible shadow of hierarchy. In our joint publications we have argued
that industry self-regulation is ultimately triggered by a regulatory
threat and can only work if there is some form of continued public or
policy pressure. Unless there are important economic incentives, indus-
try actors would find it difficult to overcome collective action problems
through the use of various governance devices. This focus on govern-
ance, the shadow of hierarchy and regulatory threats is the starting point
of my argument in the book. I owe the intellectual origins of this book
to Adrienne, and I cannot thank her enough for everything that I have
learned from her about European public policy and regulation.
My interest in governance and public policy did not come to an end
with my time in Florence. I was lucky to learn from and work with col-
leagues studying similar topics since my time there. When finalising my
Ph.D. at the Centre for European Integration of the Freie Universität
Berlin in 2008–2009, I had the privilege to cooperate closely with my
Ph.D. thesis supervisor and friend, Tanja A. Börzel. I discussed my
work on policy-making and governance in the EU with Tanja and prof-
ited enormously from this exchange. Tanja is a great role model and has
always given support and advice, for which I am deeply grateful. During
my time in Berlin, I was also privileged to hold a Ph.D. completion grant
within the Research College “The Transformative Power of Europe”,
financed by the German Research Foundation. This context has enabled
me to engage in an exchange with the most excellent junior and senior
colleagues in our discipline and beyond. Of particular relevance for my
work, and the topic of this book, is the inspiring encounter with David
Levi-Faur. I have learned a great deal about regulation, governance and
politics from my discussions with David and would like to thank him for
his continuous interest in my research.
PREFACE ix
Between 2009 and 2014, I worked as a postdoc academic assis-
tant at the chair in European Integration held by Andrea Lenschow at
the Universität Osnabrück. It was a pleasure to share my interests in
European environmental policy with Andrea and profit from her deep
and long-standing understanding of this policy field. I vividly remem-
ber our annual study trips to Brussels which usually focused on sustain-
able development policies and gave us new, fascinating insights into the
dynamics of the European policy process and the distinct positions of the
numerous actors involved on the ground. I owe Andrea special thanks
for reading and commenting on parts of the book manuscript. During
my time in Osnabrück, I also was lucky to meet Ingeborg Tömmel, who
with her passion for European studies is a great source of inspiration to
me. I am grateful for the continuing support, friendship and encourage-
ment from Andrea and Ingeborg.
I joined the Institute for Political Science at the Goethe-Universität
in Frankfurt in October 2014. I am grateful to work in such a stimu-
lating intellectual environment at one of the largest political science
departments in Germany. It is with great pleasure that I share my inter-
est in political economy with various colleagues at the department. Here,
I would like to express my particular gratitude to Andreas Nölke who
is a great colleague and has provided me with useful comments on var-
ious occasions, also in preparation of this book. Further, I am glad to
share my interest in, and my passion for European integration with my
colleague and friend Sandra Seubert at the political science department.
I enjoy promoting the European dimension in the life of the Goethe
Universität together with Sandra and, beyond the disciplinary fron-
tiers, with Pierre Monnet in his capacity as the director of the Franco-
German Institute of History and Social Sciences (IFRA), and Matthias
Lutz-Bachmann, director of the Research College in the Humanities
(Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften).
Throughout the process of developing the ideas behind the book and
writing it, I have presented my work on numerous occasions and have
received insightful comments and suggestions for improvement. In par-
ticular, I would like to thank the participants of the following events: a
conference organised at York University, Toronto, in 2012 on European
governance; the workshops organised by the Political Science Standing
Group on Regulatory Governance in Exeter in 2012 and during the
Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics annual conference
held in 2013, in Milan; the third Florence conference on the regulation
x PREFACE
of infrastructure organised by the Florence School of Regulation at
the European University Institute in 2014; a panel on energy and cli-
mate change policies during the ECPR 2014 General Conference at
the University of Glasgow; a workshop on private governance at the
Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) in 2014; a
workshop on energy policy during the International Conference on
Public Policy (ICPP) in Milan; a panel on the trajectories of EU reg-
ulatory governance during the 2016 Pan-European Conference on the
European Union in Trento; and a panel on the judicialisation of poli-
tics during the ECPR General Conference 2018 in Hamburg. Helpful
input was furthermore provided to me during presentations of the book
project to the participants of the research college “The Transformative
Power of Europe” at the Freie Universität in Berlin in 2017. Further, I
would like to thank the colleagues Tim Büthe, Christoph Knill, Berthold
Rittberger and Bernhard Zangl at the political science departments at
the Technische Universität München and the Ludwig-Maximilians-
Universität München for inviting me to attend and present my work
at their research colloquia. Special thanks go to all the participants of
these intellectually stimulating and challenging sessions. It was during
these meetings, that I began to discuss regulatory policies with Dovile
Rimkute, and I would like to thank her for providing thoughtful com-
ments on my work on various occasions. Special thanks go further to the
anonymous reviewer for giving very helpful and constructive comments
that helped me improve the manuscript. Finally, I would like to thank
the staff at Palgrave for their patience, editorial advice and guidance
throughout the project.
Financial support to conduct this research is gratefully acknowledged.
Funding has been received from the European Union in the framework
of the FP 6 NEWGOV project coordinated at the European University
Institute. I am also grateful for the financial support received from the
Goethe Universität Frankfurt to cover travel expenses in my capacity
as an Assistant Professor. Throughout the process of conducting the
research, writing up and finalising the manuscript, thorough research
assistance has been provided by Regina Ellenbracht, Janne Kriesch,
David Mann and Victoria Siegismund. Further, I would also like to
express my gratitude to my former student, David Royle, for providing
excellent proofreading services. Many policy practitioners and experts
have dedicated time and energy during several rounds of interviews con-
ducted in Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, Florence, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris and