Expertise, politics and public opinion at the crossroads of the European Commission’s decision-making: The case of Glyphosate.
With the growing politicisation of European Union (EU) integration, the European Commission is increasingly facing a tension between technocratic and responsive decision-making. How does this tension play out in the process of supranational implementation under comitology rules? We argue that the te...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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2020-04-01
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| Series: | International Review of Public Policy |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/849 |
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| author | Giulia Bazzan Marta Migliorati |
| author_facet | Giulia Bazzan Marta Migliorati |
| author_sort | Giulia Bazzan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With the growing politicisation of European Union (EU) integration, the European Commission is increasingly facing a tension between technocratic and responsive decision-making. How does this tension play out in the process of supranational implementation under comitology rules? We argue that the tension between the Commission´s role as a technocrat and as a responsive bureaucrat takes place during the implementation process when the issue at stake becomes politicised. We test our argument through the analysis of the Glyphosate renewal procedure (2015-2017). We process-trace the case by means of semi-structured interviews, media and document analysis. We find that with the increase of issue visibility and subsequent politicisation, the Commission progressively abandons a purely technocratic behaviour. First, it puts in place political strategies such as delays and blame-shifting to release itself from the burden of unpopular decisions. Secondly, it seeks to respond to concerns expressed by consumers by proposing compromise-based measures closer to public interest. Ultimately, we show how the outcome of the policy process is mediated by politicisation and characterised by a shift from technocratic to responsive decision making. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b59806180c744cdc8e1cbe3913ac9eda |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2679-3873 2706-6274 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-04-01 |
| publisher | OpenEdition |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Review of Public Policy |
| spelling | doaj-art-b59806180c744cdc8e1cbe3913ac9eda2025-01-09T16:26:06ZengOpenEditionInternational Review of Public Policy2679-38732706-62742020-04-012688910.4000/irpp.849Expertise, politics and public opinion at the crossroads of the European Commission’s decision-making: The case of Glyphosate.Giulia BazzanMarta MiglioratiWith the growing politicisation of European Union (EU) integration, the European Commission is increasingly facing a tension between technocratic and responsive decision-making. How does this tension play out in the process of supranational implementation under comitology rules? We argue that the tension between the Commission´s role as a technocrat and as a responsive bureaucrat takes place during the implementation process when the issue at stake becomes politicised. We test our argument through the analysis of the Glyphosate renewal procedure (2015-2017). We process-trace the case by means of semi-structured interviews, media and document analysis. We find that with the increase of issue visibility and subsequent politicisation, the Commission progressively abandons a purely technocratic behaviour. First, it puts in place political strategies such as delays and blame-shifting to release itself from the burden of unpopular decisions. Secondly, it seeks to respond to concerns expressed by consumers by proposing compromise-based measures closer to public interest. Ultimately, we show how the outcome of the policy process is mediated by politicisation and characterised by a shift from technocratic to responsive decision making.https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/849EU Commissiondecision-makingcomitologypublic opinionpoliticizationconsumer protection |
| spellingShingle | Giulia Bazzan Marta Migliorati Expertise, politics and public opinion at the crossroads of the European Commission’s decision-making: The case of Glyphosate. International Review of Public Policy EU Commission decision-making comitology public opinion politicization consumer protection |
| title | Expertise, politics and public opinion at the crossroads of the European Commission’s decision-making: The case of Glyphosate. |
| title_full | Expertise, politics and public opinion at the crossroads of the European Commission’s decision-making: The case of Glyphosate. |
| title_fullStr | Expertise, politics and public opinion at the crossroads of the European Commission’s decision-making: The case of Glyphosate. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Expertise, politics and public opinion at the crossroads of the European Commission’s decision-making: The case of Glyphosate. |
| title_short | Expertise, politics and public opinion at the crossroads of the European Commission’s decision-making: The case of Glyphosate. |
| title_sort | expertise politics and public opinion at the crossroads of the european commission s decision making the case of glyphosate |
| topic | EU Commission decision-making comitology public opinion politicization consumer protection |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/irpp/849 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT giuliabazzan expertisepoliticsandpublicopinionatthecrossroadsoftheeuropeancommissionsdecisionmakingthecaseofglyphosate AT martamigliorati expertisepoliticsandpublicopinionatthecrossroadsoftheeuropeancommissionsdecisionmakingthecaseofglyphosate |