Change as 'Appropriate Adaptation': Administrative Adjustment to European Environmental Policy in Britain and Germany

European Integration online Papers (EIoP), Vol. 2, No. 1, April 1, 1998

25 Pages Posted: 12 Mar 2002

See all articles by Christoph Knill

Christoph Knill

Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena - Institute of Political Science; University of Konstanz

Andrea Lenschow

University of Salzburg - Department of Political Science

Abstract

This paper is looking at European environmental policy from the "second image reversed" perspective. Specifically, it investigates the conditions under which we see administrative change in the EU member states as a consequence of the implementation of EU environmental policies. We adopt a comparative research design - analyzing the impact of four environmental policies in Britain and Germany - to trace the conditions for adaptation in the context of different administrative structures and traditions. As a starting hypothesis we adopt the institutionalist expectation that administrative adaptation depends on the "goodness of fit" between European policy requirements and existing national structures and procedures. On the basis of our empirical evidence we further refine the notion of "goodness of fit" by looking at the level of embeddedness of national structures in the overall administrative tradition from a static and dynamic perspective. Furthermore, we develop an explanatory framework that links sociological and rational choice variants of institutional analysis.

Keywords: European integration, implementation, public administration, environmental policy, neo-institutionalism, U.K., Germany, political science

Suggested Citation

Knill, Christoph and Knill, Christoph and Lenschow, Andrea, Change as 'Appropriate Adaptation': Administrative Adjustment to European Environmental Policy in Britain and Germany. European Integration online Papers (EIoP), Vol. 2, No. 1, April 1, 1998, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=302717 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.302717

Christoph Knill (Contact Author)

Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena - Institute of Political Science ( email )

Institute of Political Science
Carl-Zeiss-Straße 3
Jena, 07743
Germany
+49 3641 945450 (Phone)
+49 3641 945452 (Fax)

University of Konstanz ( email )

Fach D-144
Universitätsstraße 10
Konstanz, D-78457
Germany

Andrea Lenschow

University of Salzburg - Department of Political Science ( email )

Rudolfskai 42
A-5020 Salzburg
Austria
+43 662 8044 6602 (Phone)
+43 662 8044 166 (Fax)

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