Publicaties

The EU foreign policymaking under its multilevel governance system has its own characteristics and limitations in that it needs the Flexibility and resource application capacity of network organisations to overcome the complexity and hierarchy of the EU's formal decision making process and to improve the interestmediation and problem solving ability of the EU's foreign policy. The policy networks theory possesses obvious theoretical advantages ...

Since anti-poverty policy-making in Belgium is embedded in a logic of user participation, social policy has shown interest in employing users with experience of poverty as experts in public policy units in order to implement and monitor anti-poverty policies. In this article, we discuss this recent development as a relevant case for contemporary public service delivery in the European context. In the light of the ambiguous practices of user ...

This paper deals with politico-administrative relations in city organizations, in confrontation with complex policy issues that require a degree of integrated policy making. Doing so, we approach politico-administrative relations in a holistic way, as since the dominant models in the literature were formulated, the way we look at governments has also changed from an internal bilateral focus, gradually allowing for more complexity. Market and ...

In response to growing contestation and politicisation of trade policy, policy makers have aimed to enhance the 'inclusiveness' of trade policy through the institutionalisation of deliberative forums in which civil society organisations participate. However, it is not clear whether these processes actually enhance inclusiveness. This article adds to our understanding of this question by, first, developing an analytical framework (the ...

Technological convergence is remaking and even erasing the borders between industries once considered separate, and is forcing policymakers to evolve new regulatory frameworks for a rapidly changing industrial environment. Using the advocacy coalition framework, the authors investigate a struggle by Flemish broadcasters against video distributors to protect the integrity of their broadcast signals. The authors argue that the case may be an ...

This article focuses on the role public agencies play in the policy making process. Based on a single embedded case-study of one Flemish public agency and two policy-programmes in which this agency is involved, the normative practitioner model of the policy/operations divide is tested. This model assumes (or prescribes) that policy making is a political prerogative, while public agencies as administrative actors should stick to implementing ...