@article{BachRuffing, author = {Bach, Tobias and Ruffing, Eva}, title = {The transformative effects of Europeanization on national administrations}, series = {Public: ESADE's Institute of Public Governance and Management (IGDP) e-bulletin}, volume = {2014}, journal = {Public: ESADE's Institute of Public Governance and Management (IGDP) e-bulletin}, number = {30.05.}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Ramon Llull}, address = {Barcelona}, abstract = {There is little doubt that the process of European integration has resulted in a complex system of multilevel governance. Much has been said about the promises and pitfalls of an ever-increasing delegation of powers to the European Union (EU). However, scholars have only recently started to grasp the transformative effects of the integration process on national administrations, which is particularly visible with regard to semi-autonomous national agencies. The multilevel governance architecture of the EU increasingly relies on the administrative capacities of national agencies - which profoundly affects the allocation of attention and resources within national agencies, the institutional architecture of national administrative systems through both direct and indirect pressure to create agencies, and most importantly, the autonomy of national agencies within their domestic politico-administrations. Taken together, we argue that involvement by national agencies in European administrative networks has a transformative effect on national politico-administrative systems.}, language = {en} } @article{BachRuffing, author = {Bach, Tobias and Ruffing, Eva}, title = {Networking for autonomy? National agencies in European networks}, series = {Public Administration}, volume = {91}, journal = {Public Administration}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken (NJ) [u.a.]}, issn = {1467-9299}, doi = {10.1111/j.1467-9299.2012.02093.x}, pages = {712 -- 726}, abstract = {The environment of national agencies has changed considerably in recent years as they increasingly become engaged in European Union networks. This article contributes to a growing body of literature on those networks and their effect on executive politics at the national level by asking whether and how the EU involvement of national agencies affects the agencies' autonomy in policy formulation. We develop an analytical model for explaining the effect of EU involvement on agency autonomy. Analyzing data from a comprehensive survey of federal agencies in Germany, we find that EU involvement has a positive effect on national agencies' policy autonomy. Moreover, we find a somewhat stronger effect of agency involvement in sectoral networks on autonomy than in intergovernmental networks, which is attributed to information asymmetries between ministries and agencies. Yet this effect is weaker than initially expected, which can be explained by a considerable degree of overlap between different types of EU involvement.}, language = {en} } @article{BachRuffingYesilkagit, author = {Bach, Tobias and Ruffing, Eva and Yesilkagit, Kutsal}, title = {The Differential Empowering Effects of Europeanization on the Autonomy of National Agencies}, series = {Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institution}, volume = {28}, journal = {Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institution}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken (NJ) [u.a.]}, issn = {1468-0491}, doi = {10.1111/gove.12087}, pages = {285 -- 304}, abstract = {This article examines the influence of Europeanization on the relationship between ministries and agencies at the national level. The core argument is that the differentiated nature of the international environment (with policy development often transferred to the international level and policy implementation left at the national level) transforms national agencies into policy-developing actors that shape policies without being directly influenced by their national political principals. The increasingly common involvement of national agencies in European policymaking processes thereby increases these agencies' policy-development autonomy but does not change their role in policy implementation. We examine this argument by testing an innovative hypothesis—the differentiation hypothesis—on a combined data set of German and Dutch national agencies. Our empirical findings support the hypothesis in both countries, suggesting that similar effects can be expected in other contexts in which semiautonomous agencies are involved in transnational policymaking.}, language = {en} }