Ph.D. Workshop on Multilevel Governance, Decentralization, and Regionalism (Amsterdam, June 8-9, 2016)

We are pleased to pass along news of a Ph.D. workshop on multilevel governance, decentralization, subnational governance, and regionalism in Europe, Latin America, and beyond, to be held in Amsterdam on June 8 and 9 this year.  Up to twelve fellowships, covering economy-class travel (up to EUR 900), local accommodation, and meals, are available.

The workshop is sponsored by the Chair in Multilevel Governance at VU Amsterdam and the EU Center for Excellence at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and organized by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks.

The deadline for applications is March 15, 2016.  Application requirements and details are available here.

Duina and Lenz on diffusion of legal and judicial designs across regional economic organizations

Network member Francesco Duina (University of British Columbia & Bates College) and co-author Tobias Lenz (European University Institute and Göttingen University) have just published an article in the Review of International Studies, entitled "Regionalism and diffusion revisited: From final design towards stages of decision-making."  The piece aims to refine the concept of diffusion of legal and judicial designs across regional economic organizations (such as the EU, Mercosur, NAFTA, etc.).  The abstract is below and the full article can be accessed here.

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An emerging research programme on diffusion across regional international organisations (RIOs) proposes that decisions taken in one RIO affect decision-making in other RIOs. This work has provided a welcome corrective to endogenously-focused accounts of RIOs. Nevertheless, by focusing on the final design of policies and institutional arrangements, it has been conceptually overly narrow. This has led to a truncated understanding of diffusion’s impact and to an unjustified view of convergence as its primary outcome. Drawing on public policy and sociological research, we offer a conceptual framework that seeks to remedy these weaknesses by disaggregating the decision-making process on the ‘receiving’ side. We suggest that policies and institutional arrangements in RIOs result from three decision-making stages: problematisation (identification of something as a political problem), framing (categorisation of the problem and possible solutions), and scripting (design of final solutions). Diffusion can affect any combination of these stages. Consequently, its effects are more varied and potentially extensive than is currently recognised, and convergence and persistent variation in scripting are both possible outcomes. We illustrate our framework by re-evaluating research on dispute settlement institutions in the EEC, NAFTA, and SADC. We conclude by discussing its theoretical implications and the conditions that likely promote diffusion.