A Normative Basis for EU External Relations? Protecting Internal Values Beyond the Single Market

This chapter analyses the EU’s obligation to uphold and promote its values and interests in its external polies, in particular as regards some of the values generally underpinning the EU’s internal market, and the rules and principles concerning services of general interest in particular. The first part of the chapter offers a mapping exercise of the relevant Treaty provisions—seeking to establish connections and ways of reading them so that they may “inform” each other. The second part puts them in the context of the debate about Normative Power Europe (NPE) —a much used, but not undisputed international relations concept coined to express the nature of the EU’s external policies and projection. The third inquires further into the “normative” nature and effect of the EU’s constitutional values and objectives. It will be argued that the Treaty normative basis for the EU’s external relations is meaningful and is to be taken seriously

Towards actionable international comparisons of health system performance: expert revision of the OECD framework and quality indicators

Objective To review and update the conceptual framework, indicator content and research priorities of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Health Care Quality Indicators (HCQI) project, after a decade of collaborative work. Design A structured assessment was carried out using a modified Delphi approach, followed by a consensus meeting, to assess the suite of HCQI for international comparisons, agree on revisions to the original framework and set priorities for research and development. Setting International group of countries participating to OECD projects. Participants Members of the OECD HCQI expert group. Results A reference matrix, based on a revised performance framework, was used to map and assess all seventy HCQI routinely calculated by the OECD expert group. A total of 21 indicators were agreed to be excluded, due to the following concerns: (i) relevance, (ii) international comparability, particularly where heterogeneous coding practices might induce bias, (iii) feasibility, when the number of countries able to report was limited and the added value did not justify sustained effort and (iv) actionability, for indicators that were unlikely to improve on the basis of targeted policy interventions. Conclusions The revised OECD framework for HCQI represents a new milestone of a long-standing international collaboration among a group of countries committed to building common ground for performance measurement. The expert group believes that the continuation of this work is paramount to provide decision makers with a validated toolbox to directly act on quality improvement strategie

Casting for a sovereign role:Socialising an aspirant state in the Scottish independence referendum

This article examines international reactions to Scotland’s 2014 bid for independence as an instance of socialisation of an aspirant state, what we term ‘pre-socialisation’. Building on and contributing to research on state socialisation and role theory, this study proposes a nexus between roles and sovereignty. This nexus has three components: sovereignty itself is a role casted for by an actor; the sovereign role is entangled with the substantive foreign policy roles the actor might play; and the sovereign role implicates the substantive foreign policy roles of other actors. The Scottish debate on independence provides an effective laboratory to develop and explore these theoretical dimensions of pre-socialisation, revealing the contested value and meaning of sovereignty, the possible roles that an independent Scotland could play, and the projected implications for the role of the UK and other international actors. Our analysis of the Scottish case can provide insights for other cases of pre-socialisation and is more empirically significant following the UK’s 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost:A Grounded Theory approach to the comparative study of decision-making in the NAC and PSC

Studies of the relationship between the EU and NATO often focus on the limitations of cooperation, be it at the political or the operational level. However, little is known about the functioning of the political institutional linkages between the EU and NATO. This article therefore studies the main decision-making bodies of the two organisations at the political, ambassadorial level, namely the Political and Security Committee (PSC) of the EU and the North Atlantic Council (NAC) in NATO, as well as their joint meetings. The article employs an inductive Grounded Theory approach, drawing on open-ended interviews with PSC and NAC ambassadors, which reveal direct insights from the objects of analysis. The findings emphasise the impact of both structural and more agency-related categories on decision-making in these three fora. The article thus addresses both the paucity of study on these bodies more broadly and the complete lacuna on joint PSC–NAC meetings specifically, warranting the inductive approach this article endorses

The Arab state and neo-liberal globalization

- Questa raccolta di saggi di noti studiosi internazionali analizza le caratteristiche degli stati arabi oggi, concentrandosi sulla loro partecipazione alle dinamiche della globalizzazione neo-liberista piuttosto che sull’ autoritarismo o sull'Islam. Egitto, Libano, Marocco e Arabia Saudita sono i casi di studio selezionati per rappresentare i diversi percorsi verso un modello condiviso di “nuovo” stato arabo. - This collection of essays by leading international academics analyze the characters of today’s Arab states by focusing on their participation in neo-liberal globalization dynamics rather than on authoritarianism or Islam. Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Saudi Arabia are the case studies selected to represent different paths towards a shared model of the “new” Arab state

Usefulness of consolidated government accounts: a comparative study

This comparative empirical study on consolidated government accounting reforms in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Sweden reveals contextual differences affecting their adoption and usefulness. It can help policy-makers, public managers, and academics understand the gap between claims associated with the adoption of accounting technologies and their usefulness, as well as provide insights into dichotomies between their global proliferation and localized adaptations