Pulling the Strings: Party Group Coordinators in the European Parliament

Since its post-Lisbon increase in (legislative and non-legislative) powers, the European Parliament (EP) is more relevant than ever in the geographically diversified multilevel system of the EU. Party group coordinators occupy a crucial position in collective decision-making within the EP. However, knowledge about these pivotal actors is absent. This raises the question as to who these party group coordinators are, what they do, and what indeed makes a good coordinator. A new data set shows that in 2012, more than one-fifth of coordinators of the three largest and most influential groups are German, with British and Spanish coordinators ranking a distant second before Romanians. Among coordinators from NMS, only one-eighth were newcomers

D-Meson Mixing in Broken SU(3)

A fit of amplitudes to the experimental branching ratios to two mesons is used to construct a new estimate of neutral $D$ mixing which includes $SU(3)$ breaking. The result is dominated by the experimental uncertainties. This suggests that the charm sector may not be as sensitive to new physics as previously thought and that long-distance calculations may not be useful.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, no figure

Globalisation, European Integration and Social Protection – Patterns of Change or Continuity?

The adoption of a new instrument of governance in the EU – the open-method-of-coordination - has renewed the notion of convergence/divergence across EU member states. This paper examines the role of European integration in shaping and changing social welfare systems and investigates whether these patterns of change or continuity follow welfare state regime typologies. Embedded in the Europeanisation, convergence and welfare state regime literature, we rely on recent 2007 OECD social expenditure data. Controlled for cyclical and demographic effects this study shows that since 1991 social expenditures of EU member states have converged and increased on average, whereas non - EU member states have diverged. To examine whether these trends can be explained by changes in welfare regimes dendograms offer a useful means. Although we find a link between the type of regime and the long-term type trajectory more generally, these regime patterns appear to be in flow. This study finds in particular some empirical evidence for the loss in momentum of the Scandinavian regime pattern.social expenditures, convergence, Europeanisation, welfare state regimes, cluster analysis

Program for Generating Tables of SU(3) Coupling Coefficients

A C-Language program which tabulates the isoscalar factors and Clebsch-Gordan coefficients for products of representations in SU(3) is presented. These are efficiently computed using recursion relations, and the results are presented in exact precision as square roots of rational numbers. Output is in LaTeX format.Comment: LaTeX, 29 pages, no figure

Overriding the European Commission’s rulemaking? Practical experience in the European Union with post-Lisbon legislative vetoes with quasi-legislative acts. Bruges Political Research Papers 64 / 2017

Lisbon legislative vetoes to override the European Commission’s rulemaking. Using an original data set of legislative vetoes of Commission acts by both European legislators from December 2009 - April 2017, the contribution shows that levels of the formal exercise of the legislative veto to overrule the Commission’s regulatory policies are very low. Particularly interesting, the level of exercise of legislative veto provisions has not increased significantly since the Lisbon Treaty came into effect, suggesting that the ways in which the Treaty formally augmented the powers of legislative scrutiny have not resulted in appreciably greater formal exercise of these powers ultima ratio. Moreover, no significant differences appear between the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament

A Resource Management Analysis of Olympia and Pacific Oysters in Puget Sound

Beginning with the 1848 California Gold Rush, populations of Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) were nearly decimated by overharvest and water pollution in Puget Sound. To fill the market demand for oysters, Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) were introduced from Japan in the early 1900s. Since then, Pacific oysters have become the most common species sold by shellfish growers in the Pacific Northwest due to their hardiness and fast growth. Olympia oysters have subsequently become the focus of many restoration projects in Puget Sound in attempts to regrow populations. Paradoxically, Pacific oyster shells are often used in restoration projects as substrate for the Olympia oysters to settle on. This study aimed to explore the different management practices of Olympia and Pacific oysters in Puget Sound through a common pool resource management framework. Semi-structured interviews and free-listing activities were conducted with eleven different stakeholders including oyster growers, restoration project managers, shellfish biologists, health department employees, and researchers between June and August 2019. Interview questions covered a broad range of topics, compiling a baseline of information for future research projects. After analyzing interviews, several notable themes emerged regarding oyster restoration and harvesting. The first being that the market is a direct result of the combination of the history of Puget Sound, selfhood, and harvest and territoriality; next, restoration and monitoring practices result from the laws, institutions, partnerships, funding, and volunteer efforts; and finally, that the future of the industry is shaped largely by the ecology of oysters, surrounding pollution, health, and climate change. The free-listing exercises that took place revealed the most imminent threats to oysters according to those interviewed. The category of threat most frequently brought up was water pollution and water quality, followed by climate change effects. The research resulted in several clear management recommendations for restoration work on Olympia oysters in Puget Sound. Most importantly, a clear set of metrics needs to be established and agreed upon by each of the groups that are independently working to restore oyster habitats in the area

Lost in Translation or Full Steam Ahead: The Transposition of EU Transport Directives across Member States

This study supplements extant literature on implementation in the European Union (EU). The quantitative analysis, which covers the EU transport acquis, reveals five main findings. First, the EU has a transposition deficit in this area, with almost 70% of all national legal instruments causing problems. Second, transposition delay is multifaceted. The results provide strong support for the assertion that distinguishing between the outcomes of the transposition process (on time, short delay or long delay) is a useful method of investigation. Third, factors specific to European directives (level of discretion and transposition deadline) and domestic-level factors (national transposition package and number of veto players) have different effects on the length of delay. Furthermore, the timing of general elections in member states as well as policy (sub)sector-related accidents influence the timeliness of national transposition processes

Transposition of EU Transport policy directives. Why so much diversity?

Session 1: Governance in the European Unio

Negotiated survival: an archaeological and documentary investigation of colonialism in Beneficios Altos, Yucatan, Mexico

Mayan peoples of the Yucatán peninsula were colonized subjects of the Spanish empire from 1546 until 1821. Often, the events of nearly three centuries are viewed as a singular struggle between European hegemonies and a monolithic indigenous community that oscillated between passivity and rebellion. This dissertation shows that responses to colonial circumstances can be best understood by paying particular attention to the scale of interpretation. Analysis of extensive and intensive archaeological survey data from Beneficios Altos, a frontier Spanish colonial province, reveals the effects of colonial policy on nearly every segment of society. Archaeological materials are complemented by an interrogation of geographically relevant documents collected from Mexican archives. These two lines of information combine to suggest that investigation of the colonial process benefits from a microhistorical perspective that focuses on the roles of individuals and communities surviving colonial circumstances. This dissertation focuses on one element of the colonial relationship: the negotiation of alienating pressures from a hegemonic authority that sought to define every aspect of daily life and interaction. Negotiation took place not between idealized collective Spaniard and Maya entities, but rather between persons seeking to improve their personal circumstances either as agents of the colonizers or as members of the colonized--often a fluid distinction. Individual negotiation and alienating pressures are presented in this dissertation as they were materialized upon Beneficios Altos landscapes. Employing a microhistorical focus but heeding macrohistorical trends, this study examines negotiated survival through the following watershed events and processes: sixteenth century battles of the conquest period; rapid redefinition of the physical and spiritual layout of the region by the Catholic Church; establishment of foundational politics and economic policies of colonialism; world events that inspired a dramatic reversal of demographic trends within this frontier region; nineteenth century eruption and chaos of a violent military conflict known as the Caste War; and the identities of those who resettled the fractured landscape during the twentieth century. This dissertation focuses on individual interactions and highlights the importance of frontier areas and archaeological landscapes in crafting a new perspective on the nature of colonialism