The divided continent: Understanding Europe’s social landscape in 2020 and beyond. European Policy Centre 11 February 2020

The political upheaval and dysfunction of recent years have focused political minds on better understanding the volatility underpinning European electorates. Interest in public opinion research has soared, yet it can be difficult to draw the findings of such surveys and focus groups into something meaningful and cohesive, from which genuine insights can be drawn. It is pertinent that policymakers at both the national and EU institutional levels grasp a clear and incisive idea of what is taking place culturally, socially and politically in EU member states, and that these tea leaves can be interpreted and harnessed to produce responsive, targeted policies. This research analysis report sets out the findings of a major survey conducted across 13 EU member states (i.e. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands), which were selected to provide a representative snapshot of the bloc as a whole. This survey was expansive in its scope and unique in its focus on social and cultural issues, as well as politics, leadership and economic security. The data is interpreted through three distinct themes, each of which is likely to play a critical role in Europe’s ‘mood music’ over its coming parliamentary term: nostalgia, intergenerational conflict and democratic legitimacy. These themes have become the subject of much amateur punditry, although institutional understanding of their complex nature is often shallow. Therefore, this paper seeks to shine a more evidenced-based contextual light around their formation and nuances of application

The CEPS Plan for the Balkans

In 1999, CEPS initiated the Europa South-East Policy Forum, a group of leading independent policy institutes from every country of South-East Europe, the network of Open Society Institutes. The objective was to contribute to the full integration of the whole of the region into the European Union. This report advocates accelerated political and economic reforms in these countries in the aftermath of the war, on the assumption that the European Union itself would make radical moves in its policies to support the process

Who Is in Favor of Enlargement? Determinants of Support for EU Membership in the Candidate Countries’ Referenda

We analyze support for EU membership as expressed in voting patterns in the candidate countries’ referenda on EU membership, using regional referendum results and individual survey data on voting intentions. We find that favorable individual and regional characteristics are positively correlated with support for accession and voter participation. In contrast, those who should benefit from future EU transfers are less likely to vote and/or support EU membership. We argue that voters in the candidate countries assign greater weight on future benefits from liberalization and integration than on potential gains through redistribution.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40046/3/wp660.pd

Who is in favor of enlargement? Determinants of support for EU membership in the candidate countries' referenda

We analyze support for EU membership as expressed in voting patterns in the candidate countries’ referenda on EU membership, using regional referendum results and individual survey data on voting intentions. We find that favorable individual and regional characteristics are positively correlated with support for accession and voter participation. In contrast, those who should benefit from future EU transfers are less likely to vote and/or support EU membership. We argue that voters in the candidate countries assign greater weight on future benefits from liberalization and integration than on potential gains through redistribution. --Voting,referendum,EU enlargement,integration

A Corporate Governance Index: Convergence and Diversity of National Corporate Governance Regulations

The issue of appropriate corporate governance framework has been a focal point of recent reforms in many countries. This study provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of corporate governance regulatory systems and their evolution over the last 15 years in 30 European countries and the US. It proposes a methodology to create detailed corporate governance indices which capture the major features of capital market laws in the analysed countries. The indices indicate how the law in each country addresses various potential agency conflicts between corporate constituencies: namely, between shareholder and managers, between majority and minority shareholders, and between shareholders and bondholders. The analysis of regulatory provisions within the suggested framework enables us to understand better how corporate law works in a particular country and which strategies regulators adopt to achieve their goals. The 15-year time series of constructed indices and large country-coverage (30 European countries and the US) also allows us to draw conclusions about the convergence of corporate governance regimes across the countries. To our best knowledge, this is the first study that intends to address the convergence debate empirically. The analysis is based on a unique corporate governance database that comprises the main changes in corporate governance regulations in the US and all European countries between 1990-2005.governance regulation;convergence;corporate governance;agency problem;ownership and control;LLSV

The achievement of female suffrage in Europe: on women’s citizenship

This article lays out the theoretical framing underlying the gendered construction of citizenship in Western political thought during the transition to modernity; describes the relevant actors in the fight for female suffrage and the impact that the separate spheres of ideology had on both the narratives supporting and resisting female suffrage, and on the selective and piecemeal way in which suffrage was eventually won by women in European countries. Furthermore, it identifies the main factors accounting for women’s earlier or later achievement of suffrage in different European nations and, exploring the connection between women’s access to voting rights and to civil and social rights, it retells a story of women’s citizenship which is an inverted image of that developed by T.H. Marshall on the basis of the male paradigm. It finally brings us to the present to discuss the persistent political under-representation of women in Europe, as well as a growing awareness about the need to ensure women’s full citizenship through measures that seek the incorporation of women in male spheres of power and the disestablishment of the sexual contract, something which the historical conquest of suffrage could not achieve by itself

European Union Social Policy as an Instrument for Sustainable Development

This paper undertakes an analysis and assessment of European Union (EU) social policy in the context of the sustainability of the group's social and economic development. The process of Europeanizing EU social policy is not advanced. Thus, the weight of solving social problems primarily rests with member countries. EU social policy is "looser" in character than other EU policies and its scope is limited to those areas where member states were willing to transfer certain prerogatives to European Union level. The EU only supports social policy in the context of the sustainability of the group's social and economic development. The process of Europeanizing EU social policy is not and supplements the actions of member states in the social sphere. At the same time, the EU supports the concept of corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility is defined as the voluntary taking into account by companies of social and environmental matters in their operations and in relations with interested parties.W artykule została przeprowadzona analiza i ocena polityki społecznej Unii Europejskiej (UE), w kontekście równoważenia rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczego ugrupowania. Proces europeizacji polityki społecznej UE nie jest zaawansowany. W związku z tym, ciężar rozwiązywania problemów społecznych spoczywa głównie na krajach członkowskich. Polityka społeczna UE ma bardziej "luźny" charakter niż inne polityki UE i jej zakres jest ograniczony do tych dziedzin, w zakresie których kraje członkowskie były skłonne do przekazania pewnych uprawnień na szczebel unijny. UE jedynie wspiera i uzupełnia działania państw członkowskich w sferze społecznej. Jednocześnie UE wspiera ideę społecznej odpowiedzialności przedsiębiorstw. Społeczną odpowiedzialność przedsiębiorstw definiuje się jako dobrowolne uwzględnienie przez przedsiębiorstwa problematyki społecznej i ekologicznej w swojej działalności i stosunkach z zainteresowanymi stronami

The Evolution of Market Integration in Russia

We use a statistical model of commodity trade to measure the extent of integration between regional commodity markets within Russia. Monthly time-series data on regional commodity prices spanning 1994 through 1999 indicate substantial temporal fluctuations in integration over this period: an initial period of widespread integration gradually gave way to a period of disconnectedness in 1995 through 1997, which seems to have subsided by mid-1998. These temporal fluctuations exhibit strong statistical relationships with a host of aggregate variables; most notably, internal integration exhibits a strong negative relationship with international trade.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39718/3/wp334.pd