ABSTRACT
Decision-making in the western European states is becoming more Europeanized in the sense that what happens now at the level of the European Union (EU) penetrates more and more areas of national policy-making. Interactions with Brussels as well as bilateral contacts with partners in the member-states lead to a Europeanization of public policy-making within the different countries. The Europeanization in and through the EU, as Wessels (1995) has pointed out, is an ‘essential tendency’ of the evolution of the post-war state in western Europe. The term ‘Europeanization’ is understood as a process in which Europe, and especially the EU, become an increasingly more relevant and important point of political reference for the actors at the level of the member-states. Laffan and Tannam note in Chapter 5 that more and more decisions with regard to different policy sectors are taken through ‘intergovernmental and transgovernmental policy networks that reach from Brussels into subnational government in the member-states’. Consequently, they observe further, politicians and officials participate now in an evolving polity which provides opportunities for political action but also imposes constraints on their freedom of action. Therefore, if they are to respond effectively to the needs and demands of the citizens of their countries, they will need to learn to work in a system of public policy-making that involves complex games in multiple arenas.
