Framing Europe: The Policy Shaping Strategies of the European Commission

Public policymaking increasingly takes place on an international stage, drawing attention to how international bureaucracies set agendas and shape policy outcomes. This book focuses on the European Union and reveals a key strategy used to influence policymaking by one of its central institutions, the European Commission. While most scholarship on the Commission examines its formal means of influence, this book demonstrates how the Commission employs a more informal method of "strategic framing" to manipulate the ideational framework in which policymaking takes place. This method helps the Commission to privilege certain actors, institutional processes, and policy goals in pursuit of preferred outcomes. The effects of strategic framing are examined in four cases of policy change in the fields of agriculture and biotechnology.

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Reviews:

"Mark Rhinard has produced a significant study of policymaking in the European Union. He points to the complex interactions of ideas and institutions in making policy. The work is especially important for linking ideas of social construction with theories of the policy process. This book deserves reading by all students of the EU and public policy." B. Guy Peters, University of Pittsburgh

Acknowledgements List of Tables List of Frequently Used Acronyms Chapter One: Introduction PART ONE: EMPIRICAL AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS Chapter Two: The European Commission and the EU Policy Process Chapter Three: Strategic Framing PART TWO: REFORMING THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY, 1988-2003 Chapter Four: A Crack in the Armor: EU Agricultural Reform, 1988-1992 Chapter Five: Building On Momentum: EU Agricultural Reform, 1993-2003 PART THREE: MAKING BIOTECHNOLOGY POLICY IN THE EU, 1980-2001 Chapter Six: "Hijacking In Progress": EU Biotechnology Laws, 1980-1990 Chapter Seven: Backlash Towards EU Biotechnology Policy, 1991-2001 PART FOUR: CONCLUSIONS Chapter Eight: Conclusions: Framing As Strategy Works Cited Index