Europeanisation and multi-level environmental governance in a post-conflict context: the gradual development of environmental impact assessment processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina

The post-conflict case of Bosnia-Herzegovina provides a challenging case for the approaches employed by the European Union to bolster state and non-state actor capacities related to environmental governance in post-socialist states. This article examines four major consultative environmental impact assessment processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina in order to identify factors that either enable or impede the development of multi-level environmental governance at the state and sub-state entity levels. Larger environmental non-governmental organisations provide scientific opinions and smaller organisations lack capacity to participate at all. The complex configuration of state institutions, compounded by inadequate staffing and funding, creates impediments for effective governmental hierarchy during environmental impact assessments. However, international financial institutions and technical consultants involved in environmental impact assessments have taken a pivotal tutelage role to familiarise local stakeholders with best practice, which has led to some improvements in multi-level environmental governance during environmental impact assessments in Bosnia-Herzegovina, though the impact is dependent on staff retention in Bosnian public bodies

Transformation all the way down? European Union integration and the professional socialization of municipal health officials in Serbia

This article assesses whether different types of exposure to European Union (EU) modes of socialization are associated with differences in attitudes towards corruption, using Serbia as case study. Drawing on a survey of Serbian municipal health-care officials, the article complements existing research on the impact of EU conditionality on attitudes at the national level, while also contributing to the understanding of the impact of domestic variables on Europeanization. Thus, the article's contribution to the wider literature is to interrogate the premise that in order to deliver substantive reform, attitudes and practices need to be changed via exposure to EU tutelage and processes. Our data suggest that the type of interaction that officials have with the EU and its processes matters. While those involved in EU harmonization activities were significantly more critical of clientelistic behaviour, there is no significant association between attitudes and doing daily EU-related work or attending EU training

Contours of the Czech Environmental Movement: a comparative analysis of Hnuti Duha (Rainbow Movement) and Jihoceske Matky (South Bohemian Mothers)

The two case studies, representing distinct strands of the Czech environmental movement, challenge contemporary claims that in the age of globalisation the significance of the national context in shaping protest and agency is declining. The specific context of post-communist political reform and economic restructuring is emphasised as a key determinant of environmental organisations' activity and behaviour. Strategic choices and actions of both organisations can be understood as responses to their dependency on external funding. Financial dependence on external agencies with their own agendas and interests can dis-empower and de-legitimise environmental movement organisations. Assumptions regarding the impact of resources on strategic choices and campaigns require qualification when applied to movement organisations beyond established capitalist democracies

Reforming judicial recruitment and training in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia under EU guidance:implementation without institutionalisation?

How successful is the EU at institutionalising judicial reforms in accession countries of the Western Balkans? Does its aid and assistance deliver formal compliance and sustainable institutionalisation of new rules and processes? Using a neo-institutionalist approach, we assess the extent to which new EU-supported measures introduced to improve the recruitment and training of judges and public prosecutors in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are being implemented and institutionalised. We conclude that whilst there is clear evidence of implementation and a widely-held belief in both countries that judicial training and recruitment are improving as a consequence, the institutionalization of new rules and procedures is a far more complex process. It involves continual negotiation between different domestic actors against a backdrop of perpetual threats to undermine new formal rules.Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)320115Security and Global Affair

Race and selective enforcement in public housing

Drugs, crime and public housing are closely linked in policy and politics, and their nexus has animated several intensive drug enforcement programs targeted at public housing residents. In New York City, police systematically conduct "vertical" patrols in public, making tens of thousands of "Terry" stops to detect drugs or weapons each year under the Trespass Abatement Program, or TAP. Both uniformed and undercover officers move systemically within the halls and stairwells of buildings, temporarily detaining and questioning residents and visitors, often at a low threshold of suspicion, and usually alleging trespass to justify the stop. This pattern of selective enforcement through elevated rates of high discretion stops in public housing under TAP raises constitutional concerns at the intersection of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibitions on racial discrimination -- residents of public housing are overwhelming nonwhite -- and Fourth Amendment prohibitions on suspicionless stops. We use a case-control design to identify the effects of living in a public housing development on the probability of stop, frisk and arrest for trespass or other crimes in New York City's 330 public housing developments from 2005-8. We find that the incidence rate ratio for trespass stops and arrests is 1.5 times greater in public housing than in the immediate surrounding neighborhoods. We decompose these effects using first differences models and find that the difference in percent Black population in public housing compared to the surrounding area predicts the disparity in trespass enforcement. Four-wave cross-lag regressions show that trespass enforcement in public housing is independent from enforcement in the surrounding area, suggesting that public housing is specifically targeted for intensive enforcement. The results raise constitutional concerns about equal protection. Qualitative evidence suggests that stops have a stigmatizing effect on public housing residents and their families, and that they inhibit basic social interactions such as child care arrangements and family visitation

What is the role of activism in air pollution politics? Understanding policy change in Poland

There has been growing awareness across the world of the negative health effects of air pollution. Poland is the European country that is worst affected by this problem, and the Polish government has in recent years adopted a number of measures designed to reduce coal use. This paper explores the role of civil society activism in this shift, investigating the extent to which local activists played a catalytic role in shaping popular awareness of air pollution and accounting for policy developments in this area. We draw on individual-level data from two Eurobarometer surveys together with qualitative data from a series of original elite interviews and the analysis of related policy documents, and we find little evidence that activism was a driver of variations in local popular awareness of air pollution, but support for the supposition that activism played a major role in shaping policy change at local level

Activism in the era of democratic backsliding: explaining the efficacy of the clean-air campaigns in Poland

Recent scholarship on popular mobilization and activism in Central and East Europe suggests a shift from institutionalized civil society organizations towards grassroots mobilization. Whilst the emergence of such citizen-led activism across the region can be traced back to the anti-neoliberal urban movements that arose in the 2010s in the immediate post EU-accession period, the so-called “illiberal turn” and the legal restrictions placed on formal civil society organizations by radical right and conservative politicians have arguably exacerbated the shift and momentum. In Poland, the reaction of political elites to air pollution activism and the apparent responsiveness of policymakers is particularly puzzling given the “green conservatism” bordering on “environmental nativism” of the Law and Justice government (2015-2023). Building on semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 policymakers and activists involved in the clean air campaign in Poland, we contend that their success in terms of increased public awareness and positive government response is a consequence of the concurrence of (i) a particular (health) framing of air pollution, (ii) the devolution of power and responsibility for managing air quality to regional government, (iii) the circulation of new information and data, and (iv) the emergence of new actors and activist strategies